[TheForge] Good story, guys ;-)

[williamsiron at comcast.net]

A very nice story. Thanks for posting it.

Mark Williams
Snow Hill, Maryland

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Saint Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com> 

> http://waldo.villagesoup.com/opinion/story.cfm?storyID=111974 
> 
> 'Just being helpful' — An appreciation of Chet Grady 
> 
> By Richard Stander 
> (March 29): Coming from a very competitive farming community in 
> Western Mass., where folks weren't too helpful toward newcomers, I was 
> unprepared for the generosity of spirit I encountered when I first met 
> Chet Grady in 1986 shortly after we arrived in Belfast. 
> 
> Advertisement 
> 
> In the middle of my first spring's plowing, the water pump on my 
> tractor blew a seal. Trying to drive the seal out, I had put a small 
> crack in the housing. 
> 
> "Take it over to Chet Grady," advised our new friend, Ann Wilson. 
> 
> And so I got directions, jumped into the truck and drove over to 
> Chet's shop, just a hundred yards from his home on Tufts Road. 
> 
> By chance, he was there, though it took a few moments of getting used 
> to the dim light before I saw him. What I first noticed was the shiny 
> red hydraulic press standing near the door, and the stacks of sheet 
> steel and rods of all sizes on the floor. 
> 
> But everything else in the shop seemed dated to the 1920s. In the 
> largest part of the shop the machinery was powered by a single, 
> vintage electric motor, in its own well in the floor. Through gears 
> and rods the motor drove an overhead shaft, connected to individual 
> tools with drum pulleys and long flat belts. 
> 
> I had just stepped back in time. 
> 
> Chet was hunched over a milling machine, and with the clatter of 
> machinery and the slap of the belts, didn't hear me come in. 
> 
> When he noticed me, he reached up and disengaged the machine and 
> walked over to a switch on the wall to shut the motor down. I, of 
> course, was in awe — I hadn't seen the likes of this shop since I was 
> a boy — and Chet seemed delighted to answer all my questions. 
> 
> It was clear that Chet adored this machinery, which had faithfully 
> done the work it was asked to do for decades, above all lending itself 
> to being fixed with the tools at hand, even cloning its own parts. 
> 
> What mechanic would want more? 
> 
> My dad, an old-time heavy construction carpenter who dressed logs into 
> timbers with broad ax and adze, never owned a power tool. And yet he 
> thought that the highest praise one could give a man was to call him a 
> "good mechanic." 
> 
> As we went through the shop Chet picked up that I shared his respect 
> for old tools and the work that can be done under the guidance of a 
> skilled hand. 
> 
> He remembered what year his father, the village blacksmith, added this 
> or that tool. Among the things I learned that day was that Chet was 
> the first of Maine's sons to master the magic of arc welding. 
> 
> The welding outfit and the oxy-acetylene torch replaced the blacksmith 
> forge, and were the only concessions to "modern tools" I saw. 
> 
> Oh, yes, and the hydraulic press. 
> 
> Now we went over to the press and within about an hour's time the old 
> seal was pressed out, the crack repaired and the replacement I brought 
> along snugged into position. 
> 
> Since I hoped to make a few more passes on the field I was plowing 
> before dark, I thanked Chet for his work and asked him how much I owed 
> him. 
> 
> "Well, that'll be $5," Chet replied. 
> 
> I had heard that Chet didn't charge a lot for his work, but I wasn't 
> very gracious with his answer and protested that it didn't seem 
> enough, considering the time spent on the job. 
> 
> With that, Chet put his arm around my shoulder, and as if he were 
> talking with a callow youth, gently said, "Richard, the important 
> thing is being helpful, isn't it?" 
> 
> So, let's all wish a happy birthday to Chet Grady: Belfast treasure, 
> good mechanic, fine man. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Saint Phlip 
> 
> Heat it up 
> Hit it hard 
> Repent as necessary. 
> 
> Priorities: 
> 
> It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith. 
> 
> .I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary 
> notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow 
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