How to be a hero as a handyman
DELANSON — By the end of March, most of OMOTM are ready for winter to be over and we are looking forward to the warm weather and sunshine. So when last weekend's rain / sleet / ice / snow storm arrived, it really didn't bother us too much that most of the storm with its 18 inches of snow went just a little north of us.
Sure, we had some power outages, and some ice, but most of us only had four to six inches of snow and brief power interruptions. It did, however, provide us with the excuse to run the gas out of the snowblower one last time before the end of the season.
A couple of OFs did have issues with their heating systems however. We have been around for a while and have, over the course of our lifetimes, dealt with our furnace issues ourselves.
For the most part, the systems are so dependable and trouble free that we sort of take them for granted. Until they stop working. Then we get cold. Then we turn up the thermostat with negative results. We get colder.
Knowing that we really do not know very much, if anything, about the heating system, we set out to fix it anyway. Just like we did 15 or 20 years ago. Is it working? No. Got power? Yes.
Oh, look, there is a little door thing. What is behind it? How do I open it? Oh, OK, the hinge is on the bottom, I guess I’ll pull down from the top. Good, it is open.
What do I see? A flashing blinking light; wonder what that means? Probably not good. Wait, what is that little red button over there next to the word “Reset?” OK, I'll press it. Flashing light stops, heating system starts running. This is a good thing.
The next two steps are critically important to the whole project. The first step is to close that little door, straighten up and tuck your shirt in.
The second step is to make sure it is still running; if it is, then stand straighter, shoulders back, chest out, walk confidently into the room with the fireplace and announce that it is all going to be OK, you have fixed the heating system and have saved the day. Again.
You are still the hero she married so long ago. All is good. Until the washing machine breaks. The OMOTM don’t even know where that is located, and what is that big thing next to it? Oh, the dryer.
When a steak dinner
cost a dollar
One of the OFs brought in a show-and-tell prop for the memory discussions. It was the menu from the late 1950s for Mike’s Log Cabin on North Swan Street in Albany.
Several OFs remembered Mike’s as a popular watering hole where they didn’t check too closely about your age. Back in those days, the drinking age was 18!
You had to be 18 years old to drive at night so they must have assumed that if you drove there, you were old enough to drink. Worked for us!
A bottle of Bud was 35 cents, Schaefer was 30. A steak dinner with French fries and a vegetable was $1.00. Shrimp cocktail was 65 cents and a hamburger was 25 cents. This started a lot of memories, as you can imagine.
Good old days?
One OF recalled a summer job he had at Thacher Park. He would get there early in the morning and his job was picking up stuff to make the pool area look good.
One morning, he came upon a couple who were engaged in some research involving what they had learned in Biology 101 — not Advanced Biology mind you, just freshman 101 Biology. The stuff you learn in summer jobs!
Somehow this led the conversation to early TVs. Small black-and-white screens packaged in great big cabinets with only three or four channels, if you could adjust the rabbit-ear antennas just right.
You actually had to get up and walk to the TV to change the channel and then adjust the antenna each time. We found out that aluminum foil worked pretty good to help the reception.
Those great big cabinets held a whole bunch of tubes, which took a while to warm up and, when one would go bad, you had to try to figure out which one it was and replace it. This was a trial-and-error method that required several trips to the TV store to test the tubes.
If you had a great big 21-inch TV, you were very popular. Of course, it took two men and a boy to carry or move one of those TVs!
Good old days? Not so much. Some things are better today. However, Biology 101 remains as popular as ever today. Why is that?
Well wishes
On a much more serious note, one of our more senior members, Mike Willsey, fell and broke his leg this past weekend. He had already had an operation to replace the ball in his hip (the socket did not need replacement) and Mike is recovering at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany.
Warren tells me that his father will soon be terrorizing the nurses in the finest tradition of the Old Men Of the Mountain. We were sorry to hear of Mike’s fall and we all wish him the speediest of recoveries.
There is a rumor floating around that involves the attendance report. This rumor, which only the Scribe and the Pinch Hitter know about at present, will manifest itself in a few weeks and will involve all the OMOTM present at a particular breakfast. Maybe even those OFs not present.
At any rate, we had a nice turnout of OFs on March 26 at Gibby’s Diner in Delanson / Duanesburg, and they were; Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Ed Goff, Pastor Jay Francis, Marty Herzog, Warren Willsey, Russ Pokorny, Jake Lederman, Ed Feurer, Wayne Gaul, Frank Fuss, Miner Stevens, Jake Herzog, George Washburn, William Lichliter, Mark Traver, Glenn Patterson, Joe Rack, Ken Parkes, Lou Schenck, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Gerry Cross, Jack Norray, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, Herb Bahrmann, Nick Smith, Michael Kruzinski, Henry Whipple, and me.