I always thought of my dad as an inventor of sorts. We were the only family in the neighborhood with an automatic garage door opener. Now keep in mind this was the 1950's...long before they became as commonplace at home as a stove or any other appliance. What an amazing device it was.
A long pipe jutted out horizontally from the garage with a rope hanging from it. The distance from the garage door gained by the pipe allowed the driver of the car to simply reach out of the car window and pull the rope while remaining in the vehicle. The rope snaked through a carefully placed hole in the garage wall to a system of pulleys. From there the rope attached to counter weights hung to balance the weight of the doors. With more hardware, a rope was attached to each side of the garage door. A simple pull of the single rope outside the door by the driver would allow it magically (or so it appeared to a small child) open from the center. You could then pull the car right in.
Dad often puttered and would come up with some way to to get around a problem or make a job easier. He built an amazing set of wheel lifts to help level his RV later in his life. They were built of wood and almost crescent-shaped.(if you cut a crescent off at the thickest point). He could put one under a low wheel and drive forward on it. As the motor home moved forward several inches, it would be lifted up.
I was on my own this weekend at the beach house and spent a lot of time puttering around and fixing little things. I came up with a few inventive ways and was proud of what I did. It reminded me of my dad and the way he liked to putter. Like father like daughter I guess.
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