by Bob Carlson
A year plus a few months ago, my wife Karen and I were looking at our previous Easter Week food service notes and reviewing them for 2020 Easter. Well, we all know how that worked out.
Lately, we talk about when we will be able to have all the “Old Normalcy” again and was recently reminded that Easter is about new beginnings. Given this past year, I started to think about new beginnings and being re-born anew.
Shortly before the lock down, I helped (along with several other people) to clear out the Church in preparation for the remodel. I also had done some work in the “new” archive room and looked at an old “shop work bench” located there. It was decided that it would not be needed and was taken outside in the preschool yard area prior to be taken for disposal. I asked for (and received) permission to take it home and reclaim some of the wood it contained and then dispose of the balance.
Like many of us, maybe, I started doing some projects around the house: New trim and detail here and there, paint touch-up there, some new flooring to get rid of old carpet, things like that. One other item was the use of “bits and pieces” of wood left over from older projects and remodels. Yes, you are right, Robert can’t let a nice piece of wood go sometimes: The wood still stored in the garage is proof of that!
I decided to make some furniture; nothing real fancy or complicated, I would say “Basic Simple Homestead” design maybe. I started with some nightstands, then some small side tables and a TV table for the family room. Then decided to build a modular type computer desk for the “Office” room.
The old work bench as it was called, was actually a kitchen prep bench/table, I think. More than likely from the old kitchen/fellowship area in the basement of the original ’48 and ’53 building. The top was covered with thin stainless steel sheet metal and had slots at both ends that were knife storage I believe. It was also hand built and tricky to disassemble as the legs and rails were fitted together with joinery. Wood that was unsalvageable, like the plywood under the sheet metal (covered with old adhesive) and a shelf inside was disposed of. The stainless sheet metal was recycled. Some of the wood was burned. Other wood deemed usable was kept. I now have only have the two cutting boards left.
We can see new beginnings all around us – if we see them.
Our building is going through a new beginning, reborn into a new life. Just as the old prep table was broken down it too has a new beginning, reborn into a desk. All of us too can look to a new beginning once again – reborn into a new life by God’s gift of his only Son, Jesus Christ.
