# Have Fun Turning and Make the News (maybe)



## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

My wife and her sister owned a maw and paw grocery in Eastern Washington. They ran it for thirty-nine years. Just before it sold, a couple months ago, I started leaving little turnings on the counter with a “FREE” sign on them. She said the grown ups spent as much time sorting through them as the kids did.

I make a lot of little turnings just to pass time when finishes are drying, or just for a diversion. There are too many to keep and the material is usually nothing more than 2×2 pieces that would have become the neighbor’s fire wood.

Since the wife doesn’t have the store anymore, I was scheming other ways to tickle fancies. I was thinking of ways to “introduce” turnings to the public. On a whim, I’ve been tossing little ones here and there where people walk a lot, including kids, who are inclined to treasure collecting.

It’d be fun to get others doing it too. I suspect it would not take long and we’d make the news.

Enterprising turners or clubs interested in such could put their initials or codes on them and places could be set up on the net redeem them for turning lesson, or whatever. The possibilities are endless and more people could be introduced (addicted to) wood turning.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

A happy little conspiracy to share the fun. I like it.


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

Kelly there are a lot of kids out there that will not get much for Christmas.


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## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

Great ideas, Kelly and Don. Do you have some pictures?


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## kklowell (Dec 26, 2014)

hawkeye10 said:


> Kelly there are a lot of kids out there that will not get much for Christmas.


The most memorable Christmas I ever had was when I was ten. My folks had separated and, long story short, there would be no presents that year. We knew it, we accepted it, but the hard part was that my sister was about three and knew about Santa, and that Christmas meant presents. Being the talkative kid that I was, I had mentioned this to the lady at the oil company down the street, where we boys played on their loading dock. Come Christmas morning there was a knock on the door...and a man gave my mother a big box, saying it was from the Ladies's Auxillary. There was things like tooth brushes, shirts....and toys for a three year old girl. It still tears me up to think of that box and those wonderful people who didn't want a three year old to lose the magic of Christmas.


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

Most that I've been throwing out are just sanded. As time goes on, I'll probably paint a few, seal a few. . . .

I was trying to decide if certain stores [where the turnings could not be confused with inventory] would be good locations, now or in the future.

I think of this as, in some cases, a "little green apple event."

Around 73, I worked an orchard on the south side of the Columbia, near Brewster, Washington. I wore a pull-over sweat shirt with one of those pockets that go all the way across. As I drove a tractor through the orchard, apples would find their way into the pocket.

At the end of the day, I'd flop back in the big arm chair, stick my hands in the pockets and, find little, green apples. I would just pull them out and leave them in the ash tray.

After a few weeks of this, the wife started complaining. Of course, this inspired me.

After that day, she started finding little green apples in tea cups, in her underwear, floating in the toilet and so on.

The apples grew through the season, and so did her miffidness (hey, it's a word).

I stopped. For my own safety.

However, down the road, well into the apple season, we were shopping. When we got to the counter, we realized we'd forgotten the milk, which was at the back of the store. I ran back to get it and, while I was there, I heard this blood curdling scream, from somewhere up front. It sounded somewhat like my then wife.

When I got back to the front, she was in her rattled mode. Apparently, she'd found a large, "little green apple" at the bottom of the cart, in the process of placing items on the counter.

I wasn't even thinking about it when I found the apple in my pocket and tossed it in the cart.

Years latter, after the divorce, I wonder if I should have just gone ahead and pushed her on over the edge?


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

I can see the headlines now: "The Phantom Turner Strikes Again - mystery wood products appear around the city - authorities baffled." h34r:


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## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

Kelly that reminds me of camping at Lake Couchiching, Orillia as a kid. In the firewood at the camp there occasionally were turnings... I assume scrap from a local business. Me and a buddy used to score some of these as toys. Some were as small as chess pieces. The parts didn't seem to be flawed, don't know why they were in there but they were kinda special when we found them at the time.


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