The items you pass by..

[USAFpj]

My Uncle's shop is about a half mile down the road, and he visits it every once in a while for an oil change or to work on a dozer, electrical, or plumbing project.

He has never been into MV's and although he may have messed with his Father's CJ2A waaaay back when, that would have been the extent of any jeep experience. So I was shocked to see this item collecting over 20yrs of dust next to his lathe, just the other day. I've passed it dozens of times in the last handful of years, but just never thought twice of it until the oblong hole caught my eye. Anyone recognize it?





All I can think is that when my Grandpa passed away in 97, my Uncle recovered it from his humble workshop when cleaning it out. Grandpa was a USAF Korean era motorpool mechanic who owned a 2A, so I can see where the connection may be.

[lucakiki]

A great story, and a very lucky find!

[henry501]

That is an awesome find indeed!

And... boy you said it, the stuff you pass by every day or maybe more appropriately the stuff you passed by every day. This is very likely the case if some member of your family was around during the War years and built their modest home or handyman tool collection at that time. Since much of this stuff made it to civilian markets (except for wartime restrictions) it is highly likely that your relatives may have had some of these tools in their work shop. Especially true if they were "in the business" of auto repair or were machinists, etc.

Sorry if this is off topic but, In my case, my grandmother was a machinist in a ball bearing plant during World War II (yes a real Rosie the Riveter type, even if not actually a riveter), and worked there until the early '70's, and I distinctly remember her micrometer sets and what prized possessions they were to her. Too bad I don't remember what brand they were. She also had many other run of the mill tools from the WWII era that were in her garage, galvanized measures, grease guns, shovels, axes, etc.

It also helps when your parents and grandparents lived through the depression and treated everything they owned like gold and kept it and in good condition lest it get broken and they would need to buy another tool that they could ill afford.

The unfortunate part for me is that while I remember seeing all of this stuff as a kid I was not a collector of such things and while I appreciated them for the intrinsic value of their usefulness I had no idea what the extrinsic value of these items would be one day. To that end when my grandmother passed we did keep many of he old tools and stuff but since we had some brand new replacements some of the old stuff got sold at garage sales. Don't get me wrong it wasn't like she had a full WWII repair shop of tools from all of the higher echelon sets but she definitely did have some good old wartime era tools.

Thanks,
Henry