Swiss Cooperage

I have to agree he makes it look so easy. 87 year old guy plunking out buckets the old way. I liked his simple dowels and quick layout. No $2000 joining machine needed there. Tool wise he used very few to produce a nicely coopered bucket. He pulled a fair amount of the job off with just a knife. Shows what can be done without fancy gear. I want to contrast this video with some state of the art woodworking production. forgot us smaller modern woodworkers I feel we can gets ideas from both extremes.

Knowledge can only be a good thing, regardless of its heritage.

Great story, Jack, and I love that photo!

Nice, Jack.  The wonderfully restored photo speaks volumes about his work ethic.     

Guys, I'll delete this tomorrow as it has nothing to do with GhostFists original intent of the posting.  I'll leave it for now just as short FYI.


That image is from before prohibition. If you expand it out it reads that he was marketing whiskey and wine barrels along with the other materials. I have info about that truck back at home.

Red, more then just that. I've got interesting histories on both sides of the family.

All my grandparents came to the USA pre 1900 looking for opportunity, and as with many stories, just with skill and no assets. Many Europeans as we know did so at that time. He worked for others until he had enough money to start his own business and then went back to Europe and returned with who was to become my grandmother. My mother and her siblings were born in the 1908 to 1913 time frame. Not only did he expand the Cooperage to a large business by the Brooklyn bridge, but he started buying homes and property. I've got records of all the places my mother lived and the homes he converted to boarding houses, which from what i was told was filled with Polish, Ukrainian and Russian immigrants, all different skilled trades. He also built two apartment complexes that were named after my mother and aunt. I'll post a picture when I get home.

He also was a Mason and was a founding member of a Masonic Temple, along with a Polish American club. But from the stories I heard growing up, his energy was about the same as many of the immigrants trying for a better life. There were many family trips to Florida and the Catskills and they rose to being well off in the early part of that century with an active social life. Despite that, my grandmother still made most of everyone's clothes, and my mother continued that tradition. While like most of the country at that time they were effected by the depression, it seems like he handled himself well. But what really hurt financially was my grandfather developing lung cancer in his early sixties due to his heavy smoking. My uncles were not of the same cloth and had no interest in the businesses, so it was my mother who took over most of the financial duties after his quick passing. But metal barrels were replacing wooden, WW2 had taken its toll, and when my grandmother passed in the early 50's there became a huge fight over assists between the family members. In the end there wasn't any real assets left once the properties were sold to pay the mortgages and the lawyers for all the continuing lawsuits. In the late  '30s my grandfather had given the apartments to my mother and aunt who lived in and managed them, and the brothers didn't agree with that a decade later. Those suits still come up when someone searches for relevant case files and almost 60 years later I still remember all those visits to the NYC lawyers office as a very young child.

I didn't work and took care of my mother during the last 6 years of her life until she passed at 101. She had dementia, arthritis in one hip, almost deaf due to a childhood illness, and specific instructions not to be in a nursing home. She also had the drive of my grandfather which is another whole story. During those years I researched all the homes she lived in and the properties my grandfather had owned. So one day I loaded her up in the pickup (cab not bed) and I spent the day taking her to all those places. At some homes it took her a few minutes to recall, and at one after a few minutes of bewilderment she said that home had a great garage. Sure enough as I looked past the house there was a two car garage behind it.

The final stop of the day was at Prospect Park. She had worked there for about 20 years as an athletic instructor since with being deaf in one ear she did not qualify as a teacher in NY. That was where she met my father, and they got married when she was 39 and he was 59. I popped up a year later. Anyway, back to visiting Prospect Park. As we are driving by it I'm pointing to the park, it's walkways and the other sites. She's not looking out the passenger window at all despite my pointing and talking. In my mind I'm thinking she's tired and the dementia is really kicking in and I'm frustrated that I've taken way too long to get to this point of the 'tour'. Then I look to the left, where she's looking. It's the athletic facilities, the tennis courts, etc. It's where she spend her time with children, not to the right where my father did his work. Her dumb son didn't realize where they were, but she did however!

I'm glad I got to give her another visit home.

On edit I attached pictures of the building named for my mother, Albina.  It's twin building perished in a late 60's fire.  Not bad for a barrel maker who only came over with skills.

Don't delete nuffin. Yes we often can get off track but that's the natural way conversations evolve.