Songs remind you of certain parts of your life. I remember times or events in the past when I hear a song associated with them. Just like songs, things also bring back memories. Let me tell you a short story.
Long, long time ago, during the Vietnam war era the Americans came to my hometown in the island of Mindoro to participate in a joint military exercise called "Exercise Tulungan". I was told then that my hometown San Jose was chosen for Exercise Tulungan because the outline of its beaches are similar to that of Vietnam.
But it was not just a military exercise really, it was also a RR for the Americans. And the entrepreneurs knew about it. Beer houses and soda fountains sprung up like mushroom and even the famed Luisa and Sons came for the green bucks.
The Americans thirsty for good times was on spending spree. Soon their money was exhausted and they began selling their C-Rations composed mostly of canned goods and cigarettes. Cigarettes were being sold by the boxes, Viceroy, Pall Mall, Lucky Strike, Winston, Salem, Camel, to name the most popular ones.
My childhood friend and I, have a flourishing shoe shine business too. We would go out at night with our shoe boxes and shine shoes for $1 (P3.50 = $1.00). We usually earn about $3 each which at that time is a lot of money. The Americans were very generous too and would give us chocolates as tip which we would share as we walk our way home. And these old lighters emblazoned with Salem and Winston always remind me of that time in my life when I earned my first dollar.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I visited my favorite forest preserve on my way home and it looks like in a few days the snow will be gone. Spring is almost here and soon the trees will be green again.
Snow is slowly disappearing from the ground.
This is how this place looks like during one of my winter walk.
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This whittling thing is just a hobby, for fun but it has other benefits. First of all, it enabled me to improve my knife skills, doing stop cut, push cut, paring cut, etc. Secondly, it has improved my sharpening, honing and stropping skills because I have to maintain my blades razor sharp. I learned how to re-grind the blades of an ordinary pocket knife to make it suitable for whittling.
From top to bottom: Schrade 34OT, SAK Recruit, and a RR Whittler.
And most of all, it somehow enabled me to do the things I love the most when I was a kid - making my own "toys". It is not an expensive pursuit, all you need is a sharp knife and a piece of wood and you're good to go. Try it, it's a lot of fun and it will make your kids or grandkids happy. But don't cut yourself.
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Accidents are bound to happen especially when you don't take precautions. The knife (Schrade 34OT) slipped and cut the side of my thumb. I was whittling at around 3:00 am and maybe I was sleepy. You need 100% concentration when doing this thing.
My first whittling cut.
Lesson learned the hard way. Always wear your carving gloves.
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Twice I bought my grandson a fish for his small aquarium and both of them died. So I thought I just made him a wooden fish. He liked it very much.
I used a piece of basswood for this one.
That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
