We lost Bob

[Tinker]

Per, I am so very sorry to see this news.  Bob and I had been corresponding with each other for two or three years, maybe more.  Over the course of maybe two or three months, i had not received any new messages from him.  I had sent him a couple of RUOK's with no replies.  I had suspected as much as what you just sent to the FOG.  I am sitting here typing with a need for wipers on my glasses.  I have often kidded him about his "resort days" as he was playing around in those Italian hills.

I know that several FOGgers have mentioned that Bar job you and he worked on together. I seem to recall there was one photo that showed his grandson putting his hand into the act as well.  That had to be an even prouder moment for him.  I know, because i have had the same experience of working on the same projects with both my son and my grandson. Those days were never work in the sense that it they were tedious and tiring.  They were happy and proud days as I am sure were the same for your dad. 

I am somewhat envious (not really envious, but lack a better word at the moment) of his great skill at woodcarving. I think it was his hand that did all of the carving on the "Bar Job" that has been so famous in the annals of The Fog.  Among some of my latest messages from Bob was a picture of a huge willow tree in the yard of the latest home he had moved to.  I had asked if he was planning to carve that tree into a statue.  Somehow, I don't think a willow would have been quite appropriate as a monument.  Oak, or maybe Cyprus, something far more durable than mere willow would be a much better remembrance.

Per, I have been known here on the fog and among other friends as something of a joker.  I am truly not joking when I tell you, I am truly sorry.  Altho he had been 39 for a whole lot longer than I, I know he had packed close to 100 years of experiences into those 39.

Per, the last time Bob told me his age, he was 89.  Frm what little I know of his life, he packed a lot into those 89 years. He was still witty and still looking ahead as if he was a whole lot younger.  Some of the notes he sent to me even got laughs out of my wife.

I will say a prayer for him.
Wayne Tinker

 

[Tinker]

Anecdote,

As a child of the sixties when all of my friends were building plastic car models and sniffing glue, I was forbidden from this exercise. Oh no. My allowance was only to be spent on the occasional NYC egg cream and balsa wood airplane models.
Who knew that by 12 I could read and understand a blueprint. Snuck that right in on me.

Per, When my kids were little, we had no TV and occasionally, a school assignment required them to watch a certain V program.  I told their teachers that we had no TV and they should go to the library to do research on the subject of the assignment.  i stuck to my guns and often, the teacher would sign a visit to library for the entire class.

Many a saturday and/or sunday morning I spent meeting with, and talking to prospective customers.  Both children would often accompany me.  The kid would always opt to accompany me to look over those plans wit the clients.  The father would invariably be sipping a gin fizz or some such drink.  The mother would suggest that my children go into other room to join their kids watching TV.  My kids were more interested in looking at the plans.  My daughter, especially, would be asking questions about those plans.  almost always, the questions were more informative about her knowledge than were those from the customers.  My son would be looking at the site layouts.  Daughter was maybe 5 and son was 3.  Today, my son has a growing excavate and site work business.  He was operating my backhoes almost as soon as he could walk.  Our daughter is a realtor in DC area with licensing in Maryland, Dc and Virginia.  She personally directs alterations on many of her houses and will help organize construction to houses after she has sold.  I never told them the Had to learn how to read plans, or they had to learn anything about construction.  i did have a thing about them not wating a lot of time lying around watching TV while there were a lot more constructive opportunities for then to be pursuing.  I don't think either one of them, my wife, or I have any regrets about the rules we laid down, or the activities the kids followed.  I would like to have known your dad in those days.
Tinker

 

[vteknical]

Per,
Sorry for your loss. 
Victor