Staring Mad

The name is Bohn - Keith Bohn. He was my best buddy at F/X from the first day I walked in to the last day I walked out. He is an excellent carpenter and a very easy going guy. There have been those who thought he was too slow to work in the business, but they just didn't have the attention span to appreciate him.

Tom "The Turkey" Magierski finally admitted it years down the line. "Every time I look at Keith he's just standing there staring at the pieces of wood on his table. As long as I watch him, that's all he does. Then I look away for a few minutes, and when I look back, the piece is finished and he's still staring at it. I don't know how he does it. He just stares it together."

He had a reddish brown Isuzu Pup pickup truck when I met him, which he drove from Deland every day. It had frequent trouble, and he was having a hard time finding parts - until one day on his way home he came up to a red light beside a baby blue Isuzu Pup, same year and everything. "You want to sell it?" he asked. "Sure!" the guy said. For the next nine (at least) years, he drove the blue one and pirated parts from the brown one.

We usually had an hour for lunch every day, which suited most of us just fine. I often tried to take a nap. Keith, however, liked to keep busy. When his son was a few years old, Keith spent his breaks and lunch hours building a "Thomas The Tank Engine" playhouse beside his table. Other days, he set up the planer and planed down pallet wood for future furniture building projects. If you've ever heard a planer, you know that there was no napping while that was going on.

I'm sure I'll think of more stories about Mr. Bohn. Luckily I can edit them in at a later time. Or maybe if I just stare at the keyboard...