I was using a ratchet earlier tonight that my grandfather gave to me with some other tools shortly before he passed. It's very high quality, from a no doubt long-gone American manufacturer, and I just love hearing the click-click-click its fine teeth make. Of course I think of him when I use it. Anyone else have anything big or small that you were gifted that's special to you?
Oh hell yes. 2002 GMC 2500HD 4x4, 454 engine, 80?ish-thousand miles. He hated diesels back then (he drove a lot of them for years) due to the noise and the smell and asked for the "largest gasoline engine you make" He'd joke..."if you not careful, you'll pull the tongue off a trailer with this thing"
Hell yeah. (Who doesn't like the sound of a 454? Just the numbers alone sound badass.) Change the oil and that thing will go forever. I had one of the same trucks. 1500 though and a punier V8. Thing was so well built... just had an appetite for light bulbs--inside and out. My dad actually has a dually of that vintage himself, although his is a diesel and the inside is caked with dog hair, lol.
If you're not towing something on the highway, you best put the cruise control on...or you'll look down and be doing 90
also: my dad's collection of old knives and guns My brother and the musically inclined uncles got granddad's guitars, banjo, mandolin, bass, fiddles ...and I got a hat that says "Simpson LP Gas Service, Johnson City Texas"
Your grandpa sounds like he was cool. I've got a few pocket knives and an old camera that means a lot to me also. My mom hung on to a lot of my grandparents' furniture, including projects I made for them. She has plans to gift it to my sister and me someday. TBH, neither of us have the space for it.
My Dad passed down my grandpas retirement watch from the Nickle Plate Railroad, it is the old type where you wind it up and the band that will rip your hair off LOL.............I wind that thing up and listen to the beautiful simple clicking of the hands and it makes me remember him
Shortly before my wife's grandmother died, she wanted to give my wife this antique porcelain doll for our young daughters. That doll was creepy as ****. The children were afraid of it. So, we put it back in its box and on a high shelf. We can't get rid of it because it's an heirloom from her deceased grandmother, but we can't use it either.
My dad gave me a ZZ Top hat and jacket that are both signed by all 3 members. Pretty cool. My wife's dad collects old jukeboxes (that play records, not CDs). He gave one to each of his daughters, so we have a really cool 50's era jukebox in our gameroom that still works like a charm. Plays 45 records. My kid is using the drumset that I bought with my own lawn mowing money when I was his age. He fixed it up and has it sounding better than I ever had it sounding. I probably bought it in 1988 when I was in early high school. Tama Imperial Star like Stewart Copeland use to play. I don't think they even make them anymore.
I'm not a railroad buff, though I think trains are cool, but it's kind of neat to see how many town/city locations were influenced by railroads and vice-versa. The entire history of a lot of modern towns and cities can be traced back to "well, there was a river nearby and they brought the railroad through town..." And hey... I used to wear those wind-up/hair ripper watches back in the 80s. My friends used to have cool digital Casios. I finally got one of the digital ones and it died within a month. I went back to the wind up because my dad wasn't about to buy me a new digital one. *sigh*
My great great grandfather's double barrel shotgun from the 1890s. Needs some restoration work done but pleased to have it.
