My Mom's Gift to My Dad

This past summer and fall, I had a bunch of projects that required some power tools to complete.  I built a deck, put up bookshelves, put up a fence, and built a small pergola and gates - all things around the house that needed to get done.

I've begun to build up my collection of tools - like hammers, sanders, clamps, and drills, but I didn't yet have a circular saw.  Anyone who's done any sort of carpentry will tell you that one universal tool that you'll use over and over is a 7 1/4" circular saw.

Embarking on these projects actually required one.  I need to make a bunch of cuts and I didn't want to hack at them by hand.

That's where my family comes in.

First, because he was lending a hand on the deck, I borrowed my father-in-law's saw.  He had a real nice saw with a laser so you could see where you were cutting.  Because the saw is fairly indispensable, he needed it back shortly after I got it because he had projects of his own he had to tackle.  From there, I asked my dad if I could borrow his.  Sure enough, he dropped it off.

The saw worked just fine.  But, inside his case was this receipt from 1980.  It is for a return on my dad's saw. Turns out, after doing a bit of research (asking my folks about it), my mom seems to recall that she bought the saw for my dad as a Christmas present on December 1, 1979.  It is all there on the document.  When I pulled it out, I just stared at it for a few minutes.  If not for the yellowed paper and the old-fashioned look to this, my mom's signature looks the same today as it did then.  That's 30 years ago!

This story has another nice ending.  On Christmas morning, Nat and I made our way to her folks place in Naperville.  When I opened my gift, guess what they gave me?  A 7 1/4" circular saw.