The Art of AD Carver

    My Dad is retired from the hustle of the working world.   He worked in the oilfields of Texas, Arkansas and even Montana all of his life.   He admits now that he enjoyed his work but I'm sure he wouldn't have back then.   Too much hard labor in miserable weather.     He spends his hard earned time now retired, fishing, and tinkering.   If you want to see some of that oilfield history you can visit the East Texas Oil Museum.
Lately he picked up his pocket knife and began to whittle.  (he doesn't call it carving)
     Whittling goes way back in my family and was a men's social tradition of sorts.   When  I was a child I remember sitting under Papaw's mimosa tree with the old men of the family.  Im sure some as young as 17 or 18.   They were all old to me.    As they settled down in the old colorful metal lawn chairs they would all produce a bit of wood or a stick found  underfoot and whittle as they talked.   Most of them didn't have to make anything either.   They just whittled away and  probably wound up with toothpicks.   Even me, I had a small pocket knife and would whittle away at whatever I could find to fit in with the men.   In those days you simply weren't a man if you didn't have a pocket knife.    I don't feel much different about that even now. Its something about being prepared to work at a moments notice.   It feels manly somehow and Ive tried to convey that to my son and others over the years.
     Dad I think remembers all this as well but with the added effort of actually making something.    Cool thing is he whittles scenes from his memories of his working life.    I'm very proud of him doing this and wanted to share it a bit.   The whittling art of A.D. Carver.

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