Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Oren Beach Hammer



I blogged previously about my friend, Oren Beach, who was my sponsor in Germany and died years ago in a car accident. Well, I have something of Oren's--his hammer. We know it is his, because he had scratched his name on both sides of the rubber encased handle.



We often refer to this tool not just as "the hammer", as in "get the hammer", but as the "Oren Beach hammer" ("get the Oren Beach hammer"). I had that hammer for a while and didn't realize that it was Oren's until one day Dave and I examined it and found his name scratched there. Oren probably came over to my house in Germany to hang a picture or fix something for me, and left his hammer behind. He and Donna returned to the U.S., Dave and I consolidated our household goods, and at some point each of us thought that hammer belonged to the other. Then the hammer made the trip back to the U.S. in our household goods.

I would estimate that it was five or six years later when we realized that the hammer was Oren's. It makes me smile that he put his name on it and still forgot it and the scratching was faint enough that I didn't notice it.

I like having Oren's hammer. It's a good hammer and reminds me of Oren when I use it.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I came across your blog today and it touched my heart to see someone thinking of Dad. It made me laugh to see that I'm not the only one with "Oren Beach" tools laying around. :^)