One thing that amazes me is the creativity of poor rural people. They nave the same needs and wants as everybody else, but don't have the means of buying it. So, they either do without, or find some kind of way to make do with found objects.
I was out in Doc's homemade shop behind their bungalow, and he was showing me some of his new inventions since the last time I had visited.
I was particularly fascinated by his shop cart. Not because it was professional looking, but because it illustrates one of the traits that I admire most about these rural Americans and their abilities to think outside the box.
Doc's shop cart was a hodgepodge of different parts and scraps of metal that he had obviously found somewhere or had been given. I asked him to explain it to me.
Doc: "Well, it's really just a bunch of junk. I had the two trays that were part of an old something or another that someone threw away. I was out pickin' up scrap metal and this lady had a bunch of old broken pans, trays and what not. She gave me that, and I figured I could make something out of it that was worth more than scrappin' it. I threw it out there behind the shop until I could find the rest of what I needed.
"About three weeks later, this boy up there at Gray's store had one of them three wheeled baby carriages what you use for pushin' your youngin's along dirt roads and paths. The seat was busted out and he was tryin' to stuff it into Gray's dumpster. I asked if I could have it and he said, 'yeah.'
"I brought that baby trike home an' pulled that tray thing out from behind the shop and looked at them both and it came to me like a revelation. I could just see it in my spirit, all finished and bein' used around the shop.
"I cut off the front wheel and used hose clamps and a couple bolts to fasten it to the tray cart. I had to use some shelving angle that I hammered out flat, to make it stable. I had some of that in the back of the truck, along with some other scrap.
"Then I cut off the back wheels and did the same thing. I bolted 'em on, and then used some more scraps of shelving angle to stable it up. I stick welded them to the axle. For the handles, I cut up a pair of them high rise monkey grabber handlebars and bolted them on.
"It really wasn't anything to it, and it didn't cost me a dime. It just took about an hour of thinkin', cuttin', and puttin' together.
"Now I got a shop cart what I can put my tools in when workin' aroun' the shop, or whatever else I need it for.
"With them big wheels, when we have a bushel of crabs or a picnic, Marilyn just lines the trays with paper an' put's the food on the cart an' wheels it out to the backyard. She loves it as good as I do. Fact, she wants me to make her one for her own, as soon as I can find the parts. I'm gonna do it for her, Tondy, 'cause she's a real help around here."
