Chainsaw memories from long ago.

[1Alpha1]

I was talking to a guy just the other day about chainsaws of all things. We were discussing our earliest memory of being around one or using one.

When I was about 7 yrs. old or so, and living in Clarkston, WA., there was a Mccullough chainsaw shop on my way to school. It was kind of run-down from what I can recall, and it had a large open area to the rear of the store, that was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence. This saw shop also had a bunch of old BSA's, Triumph's, Norton's, and various other street bikes, as well as HD's, out back. Most of the time, they were leaning against the fence and parts of them stuck thru it in such a way that you could grab a grip or a lever.

Anyways, I got to the point that I got brave enough to actually stop by on the way home from school and go in. I did so and no one seemed to notice. I just wandered around, looking at all the saws and equipment. After several visits, I did wander out to the back of the shop where all the bikes were kept. That day, someone did notice. I was told that I couldn't be out there w/o an adult being with me.

After so many after school visits, I kind of became a "regular". It wasn't long until one of the techs took notice of me and started letting me hang around in the shop. I was asking all kinds of questions and taking a real interest in the saws and all the noise they made while running.

One day the tech asked me if I'd ever ran a saw before? Of course, I said no. He said do you want to? Of course, I said YES! He grabbed up a smallish saw and told me to follow him. We went outside, to the rear of the fenced in area, where they had some wood lying around. He positioned some wood, fired that bad boy up, told me to watch him closely as he cut some wood. Then.....he handed me the saw, stood over and to the side of me, and told me to cut like he had.

That was the coolest thing I had ever done in my young life. That saw just ripped thru that wood. I made several cuts until my arms began to ache. The tech took the saw from me and turned it off. He had just as big a grin on his face as I did mine. He made me promise not to tell my parents. I agreed.

I then began to hang out at that shop and do various small jobs around there, such as cleaning up here and there. After a few months, they began to pay me pocket money. At the tender age of 7 or so, $40.00 a month is pretty damn good. When I turned 8, they gave me a well-used saw, some new parts, free advice, and told me to repair it. It took me about 3 weeks, but I did get it running, running well enough so that they could do some final tuning on it. It was then mine, free and clear. My Dad was okay with the saw and me hanging out at the shop, but Mom was kind of on the fence about it all.

I spent almost 4 yrs. hanging around that shop. They introduced me to motorcycles and chainsaws obviously.

To this very day, I still love both and the experience that they provided me.

 

[XSKIER]

Makes sense now, your urge to run the saws in the garage...

 

[srb08]

Let me make sure I got this right. At the age of seven, you were making $40 a month cleaning up at a saw shop and at eight, you repaired a saw and got it running and your parents were OK with you playing with running saws?

 

[Guido Salvage]

Let me make sure I got this right. At the age of seven, you were making $40 a month cleaning up at a saw shop and at eight, you repaired a saw and got it running and your parents were OK with you playing with running saws?

I think that Dano said he is retired, so that $40 is probably in 1950's dollars. The minimum wage was $.75 in 1950 and went to $1.00 in 1956.

 

[procarbine2k1]

Nice read, Dano. But the last thing I was thinking about at that age were chainsaws or motorcycles.

 

[discounthunter]

a christmas miracle! a christmas miracle.every time a chainsaw starts a piece of wood gets cut!

 

[zogger]

Cool story man!

At that age I was selling newspapers in front of a factory when they let out in the afternoon, and sweeping up at a train station. Then we moved from town and I switched to farm work (picking fruit mostly) and leaf raking and yard mowing and snowshoveling.

No chainsaws then, but we burnt wood, but pops had it delivered, fruit wood, burnt in a fireplace. Sometimes I would axe some pieces, split them, or recut on a bandsaw. Later as a young adult I started heating with wood and helping friends who were firewood sellers and then worked for a small town clearing downed trees and branches, and also keeping the fire roads open as a volunteer with several friends with saws and 4wd vehicles.. I liked saws and cutting then, but didn't like standing in the cloud of the exhaust much, so never pursued a real full time career cutting, just cut off and on as I had to over the years, as I do today..

Modern saws are nicer with antivibe, and modern oils make for a nicer cutting environment. Much more tolerable now. If we had the saws we have now back then, I would have gone some kind of full time pro.

 

[1Alpha1]

From a young age, small engines fascinated me. I completely hand-built my first mini-bike at age 9. My father was an under-standing sort of guy. He had spent many years in the timber / logging industry (as did many of his relatives), left that and then became a truck driver. He assisted me in dropping my first tree with a chainsaw.

And yes, I was able to turn a non-running chainsaw into a running saw, at age 8.

 

[Uncle John]

Another message here!
Show a little interest and kindness to a kid. Let him do something like the big boys do.
He will remember it forever!