Karen Wils photo Dad's tools sit just as he left them.

Karen Rose Wils

ESCANABA — Most of Dad’s tools are still in their designated spot in his basement workshop.

My dad passed away in 2020.

I still can go back to my parents’ house any day or night and walk into the basement in the dark and find a hammer, hacksaw or screwdriver hanging right where it’s been for well over fifty years.

My dad took care of his tools just like they were family. Saws and chisels were sharpened. Levels, drills and draw knives were always cleaned and lying flat. Paint brushes, carpenter pencils and sanding blocks were organized by size and grit and ready for their next use.

Dad never left his tools laying around. He cleaned up and picked up after each project. And there were many, many projects.

As Father’s Day approaches, I cannot think of my dad without thinking about him with tools in his hands.

Jim Rose was a handyman, who could fix anything and ready to help anybody with a repair. He was an excellent carpenter. He loved working with wood. He made a couple of camps, many cupboards, shelves, picture frames, tables and even doll furniture, often with lumber that he cut and planed himself.

So, if Dad loved and cared for his tools that much, think of how much more he loved and cared for his children.

If my oldest brother Jim Jr. was a tool, he would be the tape measure because he’s smart and a retired math and science teacher.

My brother Mark would be a pipe wrench because he worked as a water technician.

My younger brother Mike is one of the saws. In his younger days he could be the whiniest and he still makes music with his radio show when he’s not programing computers.

Precise and even tilt with just the right angle that describes Dave, so he’s a miter box and he just so happens to work in a machine shop and designs walking sticks and other decorative wooden projects too.

Lori is the wood plane. She is always trying to make things smooth. Lori has fashioned words into stories and is so creative and unique like the beautiful grains that run through freshly planed wood.

Me, I’m an old wood chisel. I have a sharp nose and a sturdy handle. I have chipped away at many books when I worked as a librarian. I have cut into columns with poems, prose and pictures.

One of my hobbies is wood carving. Dad’s old Sears blue handled wood chisels were one of my first carving tools.

In Dad’s shop, years ago, he made a wall of black silhouettes of each tool so that after a tool was used you had to match it up to its place on the wall.

Today the only tool that is missing is the set of wood chisels. They are at my house most of the time. I take good care of them.

Happy Father’s Day! Do some reminiscing about your father or grandfather.

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Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.