Subscribe 300x250 - Love

If you build it … sans instructions

by | Nov 14, 2024 | Opinion

The Beatles had a song called, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The line, “…It was 20 years ago today…” reminded me of something that happened not 20 years ago, but 50 years ago. My father dragging me outside to put a storage building together.

It was Thanksgiving Day 1974. Dad bought a kit from Sears. For the new building, he had a concrete slab poured next to our driveway on Locust Street in Ashdown, Arkansas.

When you’re 12, Thanksgiving was time off from school. Time to hang with your friends, watch the Cowboys play, drag out the Monopoly board. Anything but put a storage building together. But, put a storage building together was what was on the docket.

Shortly after the Snoopy balloon floated by on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, I heard the words, “Let’s go, son.”

My father and I had a relationship typical of most fathers and sons of the time. He said do something, and I did it. Truth be told, when it came to working together on fixing cars, building things, yard work – anything – I’d rather have been drug through a patch of bull nettles.

Dad was like most men. Directions were a suggestion. A suggestion to be ignored.

So, as we began pulling the metal pieces, screws, and other parts from the boxes, the first thing to go on top of the Buick, to be completely ignored, were the directions. They made a great place to set your glass of water.

Off we went.

The building project reminded me of a carburetor kit for a Holley 780 double pumper. There were a zillion pieces, and we had no clue where any of them went.

Yet, went went blazing through Thanksgiving Day without a sensible direction.

Shortly after lunch, it became apparent that what we were doing wasn’t working. Actually, what my dad told us to do wasn’t working. But when you work with your dad, it’s on both of you, regardless of how it’s going.

The glasses of water were removed from the instructions and the instructions were peeled away from the vinyl top of the Buick. Some of the instructions stuck to the vinyl top, while most of them came loose.

The instructions were laid out on the driveway and pieced together the best we could.

We were missing the part about finishing the roof. But there were some certainties.

The base that we’d embedded into the new concrete wasn’t the base, it was the corner pieces for the walls. The walls weren’t the wall pieces, they were the roof. The doors had to go on before you finished the walls.

It went on and on.

All while a game for the history books took place between the Cowboys and the Redskins.

Staubach had a bounty on his head, and was knocked out of the game. Clint Longley, who would bring the Pokes back from a deficit as the replacement quarterback, became the talk of the NFL. (Later that season, Clint’s time in the spotlight became short-lived after he sucker punched Staubach.)

I missed that game while putting together a storage building without the instructions, then disassembling and reassembling a storage building with just some of the instructions.

Darkness arrived about the time we put the last of the screws into the roof trim. Keep in mind, there were no cordless drills back then. Each screw (and there were a billion of them) had to be put in place with a screwdriver. From the screwdrivers, we both had serious blisters in the palms of our hands.

I was still young and had a lot of energy, but I could tell that this taking its toll on my dad. I went from resenting having to be out there, to seeing my dad for who he was. Someone who was trying to make things better for his family.

Recently, I was reminded of Thanksgiving 1974 when I went back to my hometown for a class reunion. When I went by our old house, there it sat. That 50-year-old storage building that came from Sears. I stopped and got out to take a look and a photo.

In spite of the bumps in the road to get it together, it’s still there. A reminder of a moment in time when a father and son missed the Cowboys game, but built a building and a memory together. Both of which have lasted.

By John Moore, owner of One Moore Production

For more stories about the Farmersville community see the next print, or digital edition of The Farmersville Times. Subscribe today and support local journalism.

Grad Profile Leaderboard

0 Comments

Related News

A lot of class

A lot of class

In the movie “The Big Chill,” a group of old friends gather for the funeral of one of their own, and it turns into a reunion. Recently, a group of my old friends gathered for a reunion, and it turned into a gathering for a funeral. I got the call on the way to the...

read more
Picturing Grace

Picturing Grace

Print from John Moore’s personal collection. When I was a child, there was a painting that hung on my grandmother’s kitchen wall. It portrayed a man who was praying over a meal of bread and what appeared to be a bowl of soup. Near the man was a book, which I always...

read more
I’ll split it with you

I’ll split it with you

While much of America enjoys four equal seasons, those of us in Texas celebrate two: Hot and less hot. Between October and February, it’s kinda cold in Texas. The rest of the year, it’s hot and humid. But, as September gives way to October, there is a feeling, albeit...

read more
The man who taught me to ‘Back the Blue’

The man who taught me to ‘Back the Blue’

Former Farmersville Chief of Police with Wyndi Viegel-Gaudette, former news editor for The Farmersville Times. One of the toughest parts about growing older is dealing with unexpected losses. This week, I lost a great friend, mentor and phenomenal human, the former...

read more
Path of progress: radio to TV

Path of progress: radio to TV

Columnist John Moore still enjoys the old radio and TV shows, even though they went off the air decades ago. Courtesy John Moore My father used to talk about radio programs a lot. The Lone Ranger. Lum and Abner. Amos and Andy. Edgar Bergen. People tend to talk about...

read more
Raking it in

Raking it in

I hate pine needles. Growing up in Arkansas will do that to you. Pine trees are everywhere in Ashdown, Arkansas. They are pretty much everywhere throughout the Natural State.  Pine trees brought the paper mills, which brought the paper mill employees, which...

read more
Halloween season highlights

Halloween season highlights

There’s something about being scared. Some kids claim they don’t like it, but do. While a handful of other kids claim they don’t like it, and really don’t. I was the former. My sister was the latter. In the small, redbrick house on Beech Street in Ashdown, Arkansas,...

read more
John Wayne: Movie star superhero

John Wayne: Movie star superhero

Columnist John Moore believes that you haven't been immortalized properly until you've been painted on black velvet. Like this John Wayne rendering that's available on eBay from Lindy1017. Courtesy eBay Lindy1017 You’d think that John Wayne said the word ‘pilgrim’ a...

read more
Our stories shape the stories that matter most

Our stories shape the stories that matter most

It seems like about every time I am out in the public, no matter what the occasion, once someone realizes I own the local paper they seem anxious to tell me something.  And in more cases than not, it is how something someone has read impacts their lives. For...

read more
2024 trip prices far from magical

2024 trip prices far from magical

Photo by Ricardo Guzman, Pixabay As we left Ashdown, Arkansas, in my mom’s 1971 Buick Electra 225 Limited, my mom turned to my dad and asked, “Jimmy, are you sure we have enough money?” He responded, “Well, Mary. If four hundred dollars isn’t enough to spend two weeks...

read more
Subscribe 300x250 - Love