How to Reclaim the Workshop

How to Reclaim the Workshop

As far back as I can remember I’ve always been interested in working with my hands.  As a small child I would play with my dad’s tools in the basement, eventually making my own little workbench and collecting an assortment of tools.  When I learned to write I created a sign and placed on the wall, it read “ANdys Woke Shop”.  It was like something out of a cliche Sears commercial.  In our basement my dad had purchased a brand new band saw that sat on his work bench.  Being the great dad that he is he allowed me to use it with his supervision, even when I was so young that I needed a stool to see the cutting blade slice through anything in its way. Conscience of safety he hid the bright yellow safety key used to lock the on/off button when he wasn’t home.  But being an ever curious and sneaky child I’d sleuth around the workshop until I found it and continue experimenting with the saw and building an assortment of objects especially wooden swords, each one slightly better than the next.  Somehow I managed despite being a young 6 year old to not slice of a wayward finger.  These are the memories that come to mind when I hear the word workshop.  A place where things are cut-in-half, pierced with nails, painted, screwed together, and fixed.  Workshops are where things are built. Although I spend less time building woke benches (I mean workbenches) and using the band saw today, the word workshop is still in my regular vocabulary.  It’s been adopted by schools to...