What is in an old picture. Well, ….lots.

Here I am in Crystal Shores (apt. 390), Vermilion, OH. circa 1977. This was a two bedroom apt. and I used one for a “hobby room”, so to speak. I’m relaxing during the winter season, as seen by my attire. This was in my “divorcee days”.

1. Beyond my feet you will see a 5 gal. Carboy making wine. There is a little zig-zag glass tube which will allow C02 bubbles out, but won’t let air in. I used to make 3 or 4 or these containers when the grapes were ripe in the autumn. The room would be full of gnats, because they were attracted to the citrus/fruity smell.

2. Behind the wine there was an old white steel cabinet that held my reloading supplies. We had that cabinet in the ‘50s, so it is probably much older than that. It held – reloading dies, gunpowder, bullets, powder scales, and much more.

3. Of to the left is an old “secretary” desk. My Dad converted it into a gun cabinet before I was born. This was always in the boy’s room on the farm in Olena, and the house in Wakeman.

4. You can see the gun/reloading books, DuPont gunpowder, and an original kerosene lamp – which I still have. I see my Dad’s Unertl 8X scope by the powder cans.

5. Inside the glass covered area is a Ruger 10/22; identified by the horizontal black barrel band. This I bought at Woolworth’s at the Midway Mall for $69.00 in 1980. This store ended up as the Best Buy store. Believe it or not, at Woolworth’s there were 55 gallon barrels of old WW2 surplus rifles for give-away prices. Help yourself.

6. The rifle with the long shiny stainless bbl., was a Remington 40X H2 that I got from Hart Rifle Barrels in PA. They re-chambered the .22-250 Rem. to .220 Swift. Wonderfully accurate, ….but quite noisy. Too noisy, for Ohio.

7. The vise on the oak table was made at a Lorain County Community College machining class (circa 1976). I use it all the time - and am still proud of it. This was milled out of raw cast iron castings, and we learned to use a lathe, surface grinder, and Bridgeport mill. I remember that we had two girls in the class.

8. The oak table and chairs were given to me – divorcees are extremely grateful for any supplies. I slept on a mattress on the floor for quite a while. As I recall, the mattress was rescued from a dumpster. No cooties that I was aware of. I stole silverware from Ford Motor Co. I was poor, but happy.

10. There is much, much more that I could tell you about this picture. I’ve only scratched the surface.