November 17, 2024

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

The Irish have their mischievous leprechauns, and the world its carpenters and masons though both the legendary creature and the tradesmen of old seem less evident in this increasingly topsy-turvy time.

In my new location, a 1936 house in Upper Nyack, N.Y., some remediation work – framing, etc. – has me opening walls. More than a few times, I have found arithmetic on true-sized, undressed 2x4s. Though darkened with age, you can still see carpenter markings made to keep the wood cutting on mark. Sometimes these bits of addition and subtraction are accompanied by a date such as July 26, 1936, so that the joiner, the framing carpenter, could leave his mark.

That fellow is gone now, I would expect, but he knew that someone like me would find his mark almost 90 years later. He lives on, you see, not forgotten.

Another find was a beer can, the kind that required a “church key” to open, tucked into the void between a wall and fireplace bricking, left in old-mason tradition. Perhaps that was done for posterity, too, or maybe as a toast to future house dwellers. Or just left over from lunch.

Not sure if carpenters even leave arithmetic on walls anymore. Measurements can be made digitally, and few tradesmen (and today women) wear off-white carpenter overalls with a pocket for a folding measurement rule. And do any still have a pencil held by the ear?

As for municipal inspectors, given today’s voluminous codes, they might frown on beer cans in masonry voids.

Will future renovators, working on 2024 structure, come upon reminders of a house’s gestation? Hope so, for in seeing another soul’s arithmetic and handwriting or a leftover beverage can, there is a connection to those who came before. A warming moment.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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