One of the privileges of living at Kendal at Granville is
getting to know the wonderful talented
people who live here. This blog is about
just two of my fellow residents, Vic and Ed. They are notable for a variety of
reasons however here I am only going to write about how they shared their
talents with the rest of us through two of their projects in the woodworking shop – namely Vic’s bluebird
houses and Ed’s lazy susans. Both of
these projects have added beauty to our community.
The bluebird houses were one of the early projects made in the
shop. Residents who had discovered the
presence of bluebirds on our campus readily responded when Vic brought a model of the
birdhouse to a Residents’ Association meeting offering to make them for a
reasonable price. (The money received
for woodworking shop projects goes to shop improvement. No one personally receives any money for work
done in the shop.) Soon bluebird houses were perched here and
there to encourage bluebirds to take up residence here at Kendal. Bits of conversation overheard at dinner and
at other times tell me that the houses have been successful and that residents
can now watch bluebirds close up because Vic shared his talent with the
community. Since the bird houses look
pretty much as you expect a bird house to look I have not included any photos
of them. Nor have I been lucky enough to get a photo of
one of the bluebirds to share.
I have included photos of the lazy susans Ed made because he
created an original design for each
one. I had heard bits of the story about them but
before writing this blog I went to the originator so I could fill in the details and
be sure the ones I had were correct.
When I approached Ed, the first thing he told me was, “Vic made me do
it.” Then he explained to me what he
meant.
In the beginning there were small lazy susans on our larger
round dining room tables. Tightly clustered in their centers were a salt and
pepper shaker, packets of sweetener, along with blank comment cards and a small
pencil. Due to the diameter of the tables it took someone with an exceptionally
long arm to reach those items without a struggle. On top of that problem the one on the table
where Vic and Ed sat with their wives didn’t really spin as it should. So one night (possibly several nights) Vic
said to Ed, “You really ought to take that thing down to the shop and fix
it.” Ed, being the helpful person that he
is did just that..
When Ed returned it, as an observant engineer who enjoys
nothing better than solving problems, he very carefully placed each of the
items normally kept on the lazy susan at the outer edge hoping to thus slightly
increase their accessibility. But the
forces were against him. When he
returned for dinner that evening , he discovered everything huddled back
in the middle. So Ed put his thinking cap on and designed
larger lazy susans. To insure that things stayed on the perimeter he built into
the design spaces designed to hold each of the items. These were so specifically shaped that no one would dare think of putting anything
back in the center. He did provide a space in the center for a small candle which no one needs to reach during the meal.
Vic and Ed are but two examples of the kind of people I
encounter daily living at Kendal.
Three of the lazy susans created by Ed. This project is ongoing as Ed's goal is to make one for each of our large tables. Needless to say we are grateful to Ed because they make reaching things easier and they are lovely to look at as well.
