Grandpa's Tools

I've been thinking more than a lot about my paternal grandfather the past three weeks.His friends called him Joe and he signed professional papers as J.A. much the same as his grandson does with MJ. Gramps died in 1975 just shy of his eighty-eighth birthday and he left behind many carpentry tools from the early 20th century. He was a very talented gardener, grew vegetables and flowers. He was also, as a young man, very good with tools. Gramps didn't talk about his early life but he did help build Boone, Iowa high school with those tools. To me it was always significant that after he had completed this job he never set foot in that school. He didn't attend any of my bsketball games or came to my graduation commmencement. I can only surmise but I think it had to do with World War I. Boone was a small community of 12,000 and he, being a strong Catholic and German, felt intimidated when the KKK marched into town to harrass people of his 'kind'. In order to protect himself and his wife he dropped the umlauts(two dots) above a O vowel in our German name. This effectively changed the pronunciation from a long A to a long O. Too bad! I like that pronunciation. My relatives in Milwaukee still use the original-.
Last month I came across grandfather's tools in our storeroom lake basement. I've kept 6' saws, smoothing planes that range from 6" to three feet in length. There are scads of thingamabobs and whatchamajiggers. As you've guess, a carpenter I am not.
At any rate, I've hung onto these possessions out of respect and to retain his memory for thirty-seven years. Now that I think about it I did a number of things to remind me of my grandfather. He always carred a pocket watch on a chain. For the longest time so did I. He always wore a newsboy Big Apple cap. I have six of them. It makes me look jaunty or so I think. Whenever I go back home I always sit in his church pew. Grandpa went to Mass every day, seven days a week as long as I knew him. No one EVER sat in his pew.
What to do with Grandpa's tools? I decided to contact the Boone County Iowa Historical Society to see if they had an interest. A man enthusiastically agreed to give them a home so next week I'm going to drop them off. After all these years Grandpa's tools will find a permanent home. They will be cleaned of rust spots and properly lubricated, too. Just the way he did each and every day.
I could tell many stories about my grandfather. He was stern but kind. I never heard him say a bad word about anyone. He was a railroad union man and a democrat. In those days that wasn't all that bad so I'll forgive him on that.
The point about my grandfather is he was a hard working simple man. He always said about working: "All I want is an honest wage for an honest days work".
My granddad was a great man.