Cheap knife, but a favorite & a good story
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 5:02 pm
25 years ago, one Sunday morning, coming back from a cousin's place after helping him load a stock trailer with some particularly hard-loader cattle, I blew a radiator hose in my truck. As luck would have it, I was pretty close to a NAPA store that was open Sunday mornings, so I hiked the quarter mile to get a hose. Well, changing the hose got to be a little difficult & the bottom end didn't want to come off very easily....reach down into my pocket...NO KNIFE ! ! !
Lying under my truck, wrestling with the hose, I hear a voice say, 'You need any help there, son?' I asked back, 'You got a knife I could use for a minute or two?' 'Heck, yes', was the reply, and I reached out & a little cheap Barlow was put into my hand. You know the kind of knife I'm talking about, you see them at the discount & hardware stores in the plastic tubs on the counter, for about $ 1.00. Well, it served me well enough to get the hose cut off, and I was soon out from under the truck, looking into the bluest eyes that I had ever seen, an older man, probably in his late seventies, or maybe even his eighties, stood there smiling at me. He was tall & slim built, with a full head of silver white hair and had the erect posture of a military cadet. I thanked him for the use of his knife, and we talked a little about what I was up to that morning, and the nice Spring weather, I went to hand him his knife back, and he refused it, saying, "No, you keep it, a young man always has a thousand uses for a decent knife."
I tried politely to refuse him, embarrased myself at being without a knife, when 20 or so were sitting around my house a dozen miles away. He would have no part of it, and insisted I keep it, saying again, "A boy always needs a good knife." ( I was 40 years old at that time.) So I became the new owner of a little Barlow that morning.
That knife has a special place with my better ones, and I take it out & use it every so often, and will always treasure it. Since that day, I have always made it a point to give a boy a knife when the opportunity arises, because " A boy always needs a good knife."
Lying under my truck, wrestling with the hose, I hear a voice say, 'You need any help there, son?' I asked back, 'You got a knife I could use for a minute or two?' 'Heck, yes', was the reply, and I reached out & a little cheap Barlow was put into my hand. You know the kind of knife I'm talking about, you see them at the discount & hardware stores in the plastic tubs on the counter, for about $ 1.00. Well, it served me well enough to get the hose cut off, and I was soon out from under the truck, looking into the bluest eyes that I had ever seen, an older man, probably in his late seventies, or maybe even his eighties, stood there smiling at me. He was tall & slim built, with a full head of silver white hair and had the erect posture of a military cadet. I thanked him for the use of his knife, and we talked a little about what I was up to that morning, and the nice Spring weather, I went to hand him his knife back, and he refused it, saying, "No, you keep it, a young man always has a thousand uses for a decent knife."
I tried politely to refuse him, embarrased myself at being without a knife, when 20 or so were sitting around my house a dozen miles away. He would have no part of it, and insisted I keep it, saying again, "A boy always needs a good knife." ( I was 40 years old at that time.) So I became the new owner of a little Barlow that morning.
That knife has a special place with my better ones, and I take it out & use it every so often, and will always treasure it. Since that day, I have always made it a point to give a boy a knife when the opportunity arises, because " A boy always needs a good knife."
