Sep 5 2010

Uncle Charlie’s Deck

My Uncle Charlie rode a motorcycle in his youth. He liked working outdoors. He was good with tools, good with his hands. He was also a bit of a gadget guy.

It’s because of him we have a handful of home movies from the 1960s, dubs from the original 8mm filmstrips he shot.

The movies are quite amazing in a way;  silent, fleeting glimpses of a very special time.

To see my mom’s mom, a grandmother I never got to know, moving about is precious. To see footage of my parents, taken when both were younger in age than I am now, is humbling. To be able to see the youthful, cheerful visages of loved ones who have left us is pretty much incredible.

I see my young parents raising six kids (!) and wonder where they found the patience and understanding (not to mention the $$!)  I think I could learn a lot from these two!

Anyway, my family bought a house in California in 1970. Until that time we’d always moved around a lot, bouncing around various forts and rental properties. We’d even spent time bunking down at relatives’ houses (Thanks, Auntie Nina!) so getting an actual house where we’d be staying put for a while was a huge deal.

So once we got the new house, Uncle Charlie showed up with his handsaws, hammers, and nails, and built us a backyard deck. And for forty years, that deck stood. It took daily poundings from a generation of kids (and their kids.) It weathered forty years of cold, heat, rain.

And after forty years, it finally came down.

The deck, now wobbly and rotted, has been torn down and removed from the yard. In its place will be a brand new sunroom. Above are a few pics of that old deck.

Below are a video and pics of the partially built sunroom. Note: The top left pic below (with Lucy and Rachel) was taken last week, before the sunroom walls and ceiling went up. The video and remaining pics were taken on Saturday, Sept. 4th.

Sunroom from Mike C on Vimeo.

One last note: when he first built the deck, Uncle Charlie made sure to use something special for the steps: big, solid wooden planks cured by the ocean. They were supposed to last forever.

Forty years later, long after the rest of the deck had fallen apart, the steps are as solid as they were forty years ago. They’ve now been retired from the deck and have been put to use in the backyard, serving as paths in the garden.

Music Used:

• “Good-Bye” from the North By Northwest Soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann

By mike • by Mike, Relatives, The Kid, Time Capsule, Video • 3 • Tags: deck, Outside, sunroom