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[LuckyCharms]

This message was self-deleted by its author (LuckyCharms) on Fri Dec 26, 2025, 11:32 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[calimary]

1. Good memories don't fade away.

Especially if you share them!

Merry Christmas!!!

Watching Stanley Tucci explore fine cooking in Italy, and wishing a GREAT Christmas to DU (one more time)!

[LuckyCharms]

10. And Merry Christmas to you too, calimary!

[KPN]

2. Awesome story -- both the story itself and its telling.

Sounds like a great memory and a great Dad.

Edit: I wonder if anyone here will know what that part of the old phones was.

[LuckyCharms]

17. I've been Googling trying to find pics.

Google says that some antique phone components did contain gold (even prior to modern circuit boards), but so far, I can't find a pic.

[jfz9580m]

4. Thanks LuckyCharms

Cool post. I find professions like your dad’s or DUer orangecrush’s fascinating.

Anyway I want to re-read it. (I am deleting my first response. It turned less into an appreciation of your post and more a screed on ai and grim speculations about retro aesthetics hawking corporations scraping the web for posts like yours etc).

I forgot that politics are not permitted in the Lounge. With my generally chequered past wrt rules, I am rather proud of not having any posts removed on DU at least ;-/.

[LuckyCharms]

18. Thanks, jfz9580m.

[Tetrachloride]

5. i bet google knows the song

[onethatcares]

7. might be that nameless tune

Tom Waites whistles on "What's he building in there"

[LuckyCharms]

11. I can only whistle it or hum it...

I think it might be something he made up...it was just a short snippet, over and over, but it was so beautiful.

[cachukis]

6. Was just talking to grandson, finishing college in March.

Computer sciences. Looking for job in the capitalistic system. Discussed the difference between owners and workers.
You learned ingenuity that I'd bet carried you through some times.
Great reflection.

[LuckyCharms]

12. Best wishes to your grandson in his job search, cachukis.

[JohnnyRingo]

8. You're lucky that was before catalytic convertors.

He'd have had you out there with a cutting torch to get platinum and other metals.

[LuckyCharms]

13. Probably, Johnny!

[snot]

9. What a man!

I hope he was as good a husband and father as he was a provider. Thanks for sharing!

[LuckyCharms]

16. Thanks, snot. He was a good husband and father.

He passed away at age 57, when I was 11. Not too long after we worked on those phone parts.

[Maninacan]

14. My Dad

When i was 4 in 1963 my dad would straighten nails he picked up on the jobsite, he was a carpenter. He built a new house in 1965 and had all the bridging cut and nails started the year before. His first house was built from scrap lumber and out of his paycheck. A friend loaned him 6k to start the house because the bank would not. He would bring home scrap wire and burn the insulation off and sell the copper every few years.

[LuckyCharms]

15. OMG I thought I was the only one!

Mine used to take me to the gravel pit to burn the insulation off of wound copper wires in motors!

Very similar story here...my dad was a carpenter as well.

We are about the same age, you and I. I was born in '58.