What's With The Canes?

You ask, "What's so special about the canes in the vase by the front door?"

My Grandpa Murray used to travel around the United States in his blue station wagon.  He'd navigate the roads less traveled and along the way he'd pull over, meander into the woods and dig up a small sapling at the root base.

In high school I spent an afternoon with him at his work bench in the garage and he showed me how he'd take the sapling and gently clean the dirt from around the roots.   He'd look them over and find something special in each and every one of them.   He would whittle, carve, add a little piece here, take off a little piece there, sand them smooth and varnish them.  It was a fun afternoon trying to see what he saw and imagining what the tree he was working on would become.

Grandpa's canes with a

touch of holiday color.

From the roots emerged "Uncle Pat Murray", Mount Rushmore, an elephant, a squirrel or an abstract shape.  They were flipped so what used to be buried under the earth supporting a tree, was now the top of a nifty cane.  They are all different and most have the State and the year that the sapling was acquired carved into the length of the wood.  They are truly a work of art.

As Grandpa aged and needed a cane for assistance, he put rubber tips on the bottom of a couple of his favorites and they became practical aides to help him get around.

Grandpa made over a hundred canes and when he died all his children and grandchildren were given a couple of them as a memento of Grandpa and his craft.  Not only are they a work of art, they are a work of love.

  

Therefore, "They'll just have to love it (the house) without the canes in the vase by the front door."