…how about you?
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Oh, not to worry, I had my 30 by the time I was 25. My kids are gonna hate me some day.
“Why didn’t he collect stamps?”
that more describes me than my old man …. never saw a tool in his hand (other than a gun) …. ever!
Dad never had one.
I am an overachiever, not coffee cans but plastic peanut containers.
The kicker is, I rarely find what I’m looking for, so I buy what I need, but you can’t buy “just one” of what you need. Therefore, I need another peanut container. It’s a vicious cycle.
Good thing I like peanuts.
My Dad amassed paint brushes in old cans and jars of turpentine. I wish I had taken a picture of his “collection”! He was a great guy, though. Brings back memories!
Every time I needed a nut, bolt, screw or washer, I always bought 1/2 dozen or so extra. Now I have a pretty good collection of new hardware, but I still never seem to have exactly what I need when I need it.
I’m actually going through my parents thing’s for an estate sale and my Dad had coffeecan after coffeecan full of every kind of nut, bolt, screw and nail. You name it, he had it.
He had a regular hardware store in his woodworking shed.
Kinda brings a tear to my eye. 😢
You should’ve seen my dads basement and garage after we cleaned up all his stuff from from over 60 + years of collecting and saving nuts and bolts and screws and everything else after he died 2 years ago. Being a child of the Great Depression he very rarely threw anything away. And he could build just about anything from all those nuts and bolts and screws to fix and repair stuff that needed to be fixed. I marveled at his creativity, I know that I couldn’t do it like he did. He and my Uncle Ross were also excellent craftsman with their hands, they could build or repair just about anything. I have a lot of his and Ross’s wood working and metal art sculptures and miscellaneous folk art pieces in my collection of all their stuff they created over their lifetimes. And I’m not giving it away because it reminds me so much of both of them.
There was the DeWalt, the Gravely and the HUGE family of screw drivers that lived in the basement “shop” that predated today’s media mancave. When Home Depot opened all bets were off…
My dad made me a rack full of empty plastic peanut butter jars when I got married. They are all full now of nuts boltsscrews rivets washers, you know, the things.
When I was growing up, my mom would stop and pick up mechanic rags for my dad. My wife who grew up communist, carries on that tradition for me.
But I get the sentiment.
Even though my Dad left us in 2009 a lot of the nuts, bolts, nails, screws are still there. And, when I need something, I’ll look through them to see if I can find what I need. And sometimes I do.
Dads like that came from an era when things were made in America, and made to last. In other words, things were made to be repaired when they broke, not thrown away. Drills lasted lifetimes. Tools lasted lifetimes.
Now everything is made in China, and it’s all junk that costs more to fix than replace with new crap.
That said, remember Japanese transister radios and Sony tape decks? Those things were built like tanks. Japanese everything is bulit great. But not at the beginning: they were manufacturers of China-type crap, but not for long. Once they got on their feet after the war, they became the masters of every consumer good.
America needs to reinvent itself like that – and put all those black lives matters and antifa street animals to work.
My Dad’s second wife pissed away most of that but I got most of my grandfather’s and great grandfathers collections….it’s glorious….need a twisted shank copper nail?….yeah I got some….
I still have Daddy ‘s hedge clippers.
And my containers of buttons for every need.
My mother lived through the Great Depression and then the
rationing of WWII. Like so many of her age she had 30+ years old, huge balls of string and dry rotted rubber bands, used hardware of every kind, old jars both empty and full of odds and ends, yellow stacks of writing paper and half full cans of ancient paints, worn clothing that could be used for patches and lots of sewing materials.
Those people had it tough. If you didn’t save it back then,
you didn’t have it.
You do NOT want to see my garage.
My paternal grandmother paid for everything in cash with silver dollars. I don’t think that my grandparents had any debt and were able to pay off the farm back in North Idaho in the 1940’s with help from their 4 sons who sent a lot of their money home during World War 2 and after. If they couldn’t pay for it in cash they wouldn’t buy it or wait until they had enough money to pay for it in cash. They both were afraid of another depression that they hoarded their money and were very careful with how they spent it and still managed to live a good life.
I got all that stuff in my man cave. What I need now is a scantily clad french maid to do some dusting if ya know what I mean and I think you do wink wink nod nod.
Holy Crap. YES!
It’s a conservative values or possibly a poverty brain thing.
A Depression thing me thinks.
My dad refinished and restored an old wooden sideboard for my wife Patty and gave it to her for Christmas about 30 years ago. It was her pride and joy and we still use it to this day. And his Easter Island statues made out of wood are a hoot. My son has a couple of the larger ones that were carved from a log in his garden and I have a smaller statue right next to my computer. The pictures of him making those Easter Island statues that they took when he was making them were funny especially the ones where he dressed them up and hung a tie around its neck. My son has inherited a lot of his creativity and is a very good artist if he puts his mind to it. I think he misses his grandfather more than I do because he learned a lot from him when he was growing up.
I’m just like my Dad. I even have a box full of empty metal coffee cans waiting to be filled. They’re great for nails.
Answerman – It’s a conservative values or possibly a poverty brain thing.
Bad_Brad – A Depression thing me thinks.
It was called self sufficient. Growing up on a small farm, we did it all. We had chickens for eggs and meat. One milk cow, produced enough milk for us and the neighbor, every day. 3-4 cows various sizes. A few (dumb as shit) sheep. Garden, raspberries, strawberries, apple, pears,cherry, Trees. And one of those dreaded artesian wells. A pipe sticking up out of the ground with a rusty tin cup that hung there all year round. Best water ever, and nobody died.
My dad is a mechanic(long retired),i am a mechanic.
We both have garages,sheds etc, filled with fasteners and strange tools most people wouldn’t know what to do with.
My parents were Depression era kids, too. Dad had two careers, 20 years a barber then 20 years a plumber. From both jobs he constantly brought home stuff that no one else wanted.
I have buckets of nuts, screws, washers, and o-rings. If my Dad doesn’t have some shit I’ll have it. If I don’t have some shit my Dad will have it. Guaranteed.
Man how I love reading about all the ‘Dads’ that were just like mine. I too inherited dozens of metal coffee cans full of assorted hardware.
Among my most treasured items are a small piece of steel rail from the railroad that my dad’s dad used as a sort of mini anvil.
I remember how he loved to look for bargains at the Sears surplus store. Just as good as the new stuff, and with the same money back guarantee!
God how I miss him…
Grandad Mac had a magic barn. If you wished hard enough you’d find the exact part you needed in that barn. I’m not bullshitting. You’d find that chrome plated brass trap. You’d find that 3 foot wrench. Fucking 3 foot pop spanner that was 108 years old. My son, one day, will ask the great beyond why I had 3 hacksaws and 7 goo guns.
WHY DOES MY DAD HAVE A 58 POUND BUCKET OF SCREWS?
Because he may need them.
Guilty.
AA won’t go into our garage its to full and she does not want to trip.
And who parks their car in it anyway.
My dad thought nothing of leaving expensive power tools lying out unprotected to rust away, and half of them he jury-rigged to disable various safety features “that got in the way”, but God forbid you try to throw them out as unsafe — “that’s a valuable piece of hardware there”. And he never wore safety goggles — I used to cringe every time I heard him fire up one of his tools, but thank God nothing ever happened. He’s been gone almost two years now (cancer), and it’s still hard to believe that he’s not still sitting in his favorite chair, drawing up plans for his next big project. We miss you, Dad, and we’re only just now starting to realize just how much.
Don’t feel bad, FUR, you’re young! There just aren’t as many things to take apart and salvage these days. My dad brought various electronic chassis home from “surplus” and we’d take them apart just for their nuts, bolts, washers, odd brackets, connectors, wire and electrical components. It’s how I learned to ‘solder’ – by unsoldering things first. Years later, I found myself dismantling things before throwing them out just so I could have spares around. Lately, I’ve given my ‘cans’ to #1 son…
He only had about dozen large coffee cans full of stuff though. I always kept mine in small coffee cans and old peanut butter jars.
I actually have 4. ☺️
I have 10 milk crates, each crate has 9 or 12 jars, a crate for screws, a crate for nails, a crate for aircraft fasteners, a crate for rivets, a crate for electrical components, you get the picture, Dad taught me well.
I have the 1/2 inch electric drill he bought new from Sears when he built our house, 65 years ago.
Works fine, it has gears in it, break your arm, pay attention.
Back in the 70’s I kept a plane in a rusting row of T-hangers at Hobby Field, Houston. There were some wonderful old guys in neighboring hangers. One a pilot before the Civil Aeronautics Administration (pre FAA) started requiring licenses. Another guy a mechanic with table after table covered with jars, coffee cans, and cardboard boxes full of sorted bolts, rivets, etc. I spent hours with the mechanic, learning about wrenching on airplanes while helping him work his air charter company’s Beech 18’s. That company finally hired a young “assistant” for him. I’ll never forget Bruce’s look of exasperation when he returned from a brief vacation to discover the assistant had cleaned up the hanger, including consolidating all of the sorted hardware by pouring everything into a few large boxes. The kid had no idea what he had done. Bruce was a very gentle, patient, man. He put his hand on the kid’s shoulder and said one of his favorite expressions, “God loves you.”
I’ve got grandpa’s containers but it’s mostly square nuts and slotted screws. Apparently philips weren’t collectable.
My old man worked at Republic Aviation out on Long Island in the early 60’s and I still have 3-4 metal Tetley Tea cans full of nuts, bolts and washers. Very handy to have around for a multitude of reasons. My collection was started back in the early 70’s using the metal Danish cookie tins. LOL
My dad was a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman …….. at leest theat’s what my ma sed.
sHe said he had a bucket of balls!
don’t know why he carried em aroung while sellin vacuum’s, tho ………..
Just yesterday I discovered a leak in my 20 year old garden sprayer. I took it apart and discovered a dried-out o-ring wouldn’t seal anymore. I scratched my head for a while and then remembered I had a small o-ring assortment I had purchased a few years back because it was only $2 more than the single o-ring I needed for a repair I was making at the time.
Hmmmmm, where did I put that box…. Oh, yeah – in the cabinet next to the Mustang. There it is! Open it up….a perfect match! Off to spraying weeds…
I saw my dad do that more than once, fixing a leaky hose or faucet by finding an O ring in his collection of assorted parts and stuff and patiently fitting it into the hose using his pocket knife to make sure it fit snugly and it worked every time. Nothing was ever wasted, all that stuff had a purpose.
My Dad didn’t keep hardware. I do.
My dad couldn’t keep me out of the garage. His tools and stuff were my world. I got the blame for everything he couldn’t find. I started collecting at an early age following his lead. He had baby food jar lids nailed to a board mounted on the wall and put parts in the jars and screw them in so you could see what you had.
I have 22 boxes with about 12 compartments each just on my work truck. When someone needs something, odd part or fastener at work, they know who to go to.
Not coffee cans or jars, but an entire row of metal cabinets/drawers that run along an entire garage wall. He had them neatly organized and labeled. In the past decade or so, I’ve never had to go to the hardware store to get a bolt, nut, washer, o-ring, hose clamp, etc.