Friday, November 20

Keep Your Nose to the Grindstone

A few days ago I had an old fashioned water grindstone mounted by David Russell from out on Lotts Creek way. David did a very excellent job from what I have heard from so many old timers. I don't think I have heard so many comments in regard to a piece of work of the old time way of doing things. Two old fellows were admiring the makes of what they called a modern piece of machinery. One stated that he left off the watering can. Another spoke up and said, "when in the hell was you born? This is the type of grinder that we used before tin cans were ever heard of." Someone suggested to me that this could bring back memories of many water wheels on the rivers and streams where meal used to be ground. One was mentioned down Dwarf way where a tunnel was cut through the mountain to divert the water to turn these wheels that made the meal for the residents of our area. 1961

3 comments:

  1. This is the first time that I have visited this web site. I was so astonished. I am the youngest child of David Russell. Whoever wrote this article was correct, when Dad fixed something or built something it was there for the future. He only knew one way of doing things, the hard and correct way. He died two years ago at the age of 92. Even days before he died he was telling us how to do things. This article was a blessing to me. I would love to know who wrote it and if this was the whole article.

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  2. It was written by Roscoe Davis in 1961.

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  3. I'm the 6th of 8 children of David Russell, and as my youngest sister and sibling said, he was a perfectionist. He was "one of a kind" and knew welding, plumbing, electricity, construction work, and just about anything else. He only had an eighth grade education, but I can't imagine what he could have accomplished if he had had the chance to go on to a higher grade level. He knew the importance of having an education, and we, his children, accepted the fact that we would be going to college from the time we entered school. He had high expectations from all of us. Hopefully, we didn't disappoint him too much.

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