Boat

The Gnome by Pink Floyd
[audio:http://uvhk.fce.vutbr.cz/sharejuke/M_cizi/PinkFloyd%20-%201967%20The%20Piper%20At%20The%20Gates%20of%20Dawn/Pink%20Floyd%20-%20The%20Piper%20at%20the%20Gates%20of%20Dawn%20-%2008%20-%20The%20Gnome.mp3]

So I remembered recently an interesting event from my childhood. My grandfather on my mother’s side had a workshop in the basement where he had all sorts of tools and spare parts from previous things he had made. I loved playing down there, and as I got older, he started to help me build creations of my own.

I remember building a mousetrap, because my grandparents had complained about the mice in the basement. My mousetrap consisted of two pieces of wood nailed together, and a piece of cheese. I don’t remember how it was supposed to work, but I left it down there to let it take care of the rodent problem.

I think my favourite creation, looking back, was the boat I made. It may have been the first thing I made with my grandfather, I’m not sure. But I took a length of 2×4 (maybe 8 or 10 inches long) and hammered about 50 nails into the top of it. Once I was done building my boat, I filled up the sink with water to prove it floated.

What I like most about my boat is that as a kid, I had reduced a boat to the very simplest of construction. I knew a boat was made out of wood, and I knew that you needed to do some work to make it. Having only one piece of wood meant I should just hammer nails into it until I figured it was done. What a cool boat.