Over the years, the house tools disappeared. Even some that were my deceased Dad's tools - gone. So I said, "No more!" For the next several weekends my teenage son accompanied "Mom" to the swap meet and shared his knowledge of good tools, worn tools, useful vs useless tools and fortunately, inexpensive used tools vs new.
As I accumulated items, I cleaned and left my small mark of lavender acrylic paint somewhere (usually at joints to "last") on each tool. My family laughed. The next Christmas, my son gifted me a brand new double layer, metal (not too expensive) tool box. I poured red acrylic paint into a paper plate and we each placed our hands in it and then on top of the box; signed, dated, and acrylic sealed it. No more lost tools and they are great gifts.
I treasure my tool box and the sharing with my sons and their Dad. It's over 20 years later and family has moved on. I have terrific memories of the sharing. And nobody better put "anything" on top of it to scratch those marks. I can't imagine an independent person not having one. Nor can my sons.
By Harriet Mann from Tucson, AZ
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Car tool box: My dad always had tools in the box in the bed of his truck. The truck came to me and when it died I just never transferred the tools to my car trunk. One day a colleague was having battery trouble and asked "don't you even have a pair of pliers?" Since then I keep a yard sale box with yard sale tools in the trunk.
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