By Nick Humble

By Editor | March 5, 2024 |

By Nick Humble

A few years ago my wife and I were visiting with my sister April and her husband Joe in Missouri. We were out touring around the area and we decided that we would visit the Daniel Boone home located in Defiance, MO.

It was just a few miles outside St. Louis where my sister lived. Upon arriving there, we began the tour and one of the things that caught my eye were the doors, actually it was really the hinges on the doors that I found so fascinating. They were made of wood and were designed in a way that when you opened the door the door actually raised a couple of inches and when you shut it the door settled down and formed a seal.

Now I knew that I had seen that before and it didn’t take me long to go back to my childhood and remember my paternal grandmother and grandfather’s old barn. My grandfather had hewn wooden hinges on all the interior barn stall doors that lifted as you pulled the door open and settled down into a seal when you shut it.

I never actually met him as he died before I was born but those hinges were still operating when I was a boy and that barn was at least 50 or 60 years old at that time. Come to think of it, the cellar door below the house also operated in the same manner. Now there had to be a trick to the weight distribution of the door because they operated so smoothly.

I may be mistaken here but I believe I was told that he made the post part of the hinge out of sassafras. It attached at the bottom and then came out from the post and stood up enough for the sleeve of the hinge to go over it. It slanted upward as you opened the door thus clearing the door and if I’m not mistaken the door lay a little to the post side at the top. The mortis part of the hinge was made from oak, hewn out and nestled down over the sassafras post.

I guess I just always took that kind of stuff for granted when I was a young boy growing into manhood. The latch on the door was slanted downward with a loop on the top side, two loops on the bottom side and a draw board with a knob (to catch the board and to use to open the door) running thru the two downward loops. I actually have one of those on my backyard gate and it gets a lot of attention for anyone who has not seen one.

Now I know that back in the hill country of Kentucky, probably across all of Appalachia in the 20’s and 30’s this was a way of life and people did what had to be done with what they had at hand. What I didn’t realize was that this had been around back in the 1700’s and had been passed down. I guess the wooden hinges died out in the 40’s and people could afford to buy metal hinges, but for me, I miss that craftsmanship of people like my grandfather who could do about anything he wanted with wood or with what he had to do with.

Perhaps you may have seen such things in your childhood and have memories that are opened on the hinges of your mind by my little story, if so I hope you enjoy your journey.

I guess my thoughts run to how the hinges of our mind operates. A smell, a taste, a sound, or maybe just a word or laugh opens a door that may have been closed a long time. Hinges need lubrication and attention to operate smoothly. You know the old/new saying about garbage in garbage out. Are the memories, that our minds open, ethical and moral things, or base and vain things.

PROVERBS 23:7 “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”. (from what I understand the heart and the mind are usually one and the same in the Bible.)

That old barn has been gone for 30 years now but the memories of it lay in my mind. Oh I have some memories that are not so good also, but seldom does my mind open to those things. I try to store up treasures that I will look forward to remembering down the road. I hope you have a storehouse of good memories, but if not, maybe it is time to start storing the right things.

That and a dollar……………………Have a good day!

Posted in Editorial