July 2020 – Durfee Newsletter

Posted on July 10, 2020 by webmaster

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STORIES

Its gotten hot lately. Funny how different things make you think of different times of year. I know a lot of people look at the opening of spring training in baseball as a sign of the season changing. For me its when we start lowering the awnings at the store. Although we have had to replace the fabric a number of times, those awnings mechanisms are the original ones from when the store was built. There is something nostalgic about opening and closing them and saying hi to the customers as they come in the door for me.

This was even more important back when I was a kid and the store didn’t have air conditioning back then. Its almost hard to remember at this point. What retail store isn’t air conditioned now?

The store basement used to give us some relief from the heat early in the summer but even that would go away as the summer ran on.

Most of you probably remember my dad wearing a suit coat and a “real” bow tie. Back then he would have to just go with a button down short sleeved shirt. The gigantic pole mounted fans we had did a decent job of moving the air but not enough for you to wear his patented coat and tie!

So that was the ritual each day as I was growing up as a kid – not even out of elementary school. My dad would open the door in the morning and I would run to each of the many fans and turn them on. Then I’d get the cranks for the awnings and open them up so the front windows wouldn’t be in direct sun.

So, after writing this, a random thought came to me. Now that I think about it, I never saw my dad wear shorts. Now I wonder why that is. I know he got hot at the store. Funny how you see stuff in your family when you are a kid and you don’t think its odd till later. In fact, I can’t really remember him wearing sneakers. He used to wear dress shoes to work every day. Leather ones that you would use shoe polish for. Funny, his shoe polish is still in the closet at the hardware store. We haven’t really felt like throwing it out. We certainly don’t use it. Anyway, when he was gardening, he would just put on an old pair of those shoes. They had paint spattered on them and had cut marks from all the work he did around the yard. I don’t know, maybe that generation just didn’t wear shorts and sneaker or maybe it was just my dad. Not sure.

MY STUFF

I think I mentioned that I planted some fruit trees last year. I bought some fertilizer “spikes” to put into the ground to make sure they continue to grow nicely.

Somehow I ended up with two right handed gloves. I bought some work gloves to work around the yard with (trimming branches and things) so I don’t ruin my hands. (No idea where the left hands went!!)

I believe I mentioned that I have had to take every indoor door off its hinges, put glue in the seams, and clamp them. Now they fit in the doorjamb like they did when the house was built. I had to get some more glue and also I bought some paint brushes to repaint some of them. When I took them out to work I them I realized they needed a paint job.

And yes, I’m still buying some hole patch repair to fix up my driveway.

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