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USA
Midwest
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Danvers, IL
D. Bill
c. 1923
Totem pole carver
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Information:
It's amazing what one can do with a Craftsman hatchet. D. Bill, who apparently doesn't have a first name—at least not one he wanted to share with us—is the kind of man who spends his winters in the garage. Working from carefully laid-out drawings and complicated, written mathematical equations, the man is a study in patience and tenacity. With pencil and ruler, he carefully transfers the designs he's drawn onto the ends of old wooden street lamp poles, measuring just so and methodically laying out his lines. Then he picks up his trusty old Craftsman and starts hackin' away.
"If you draw it up, it's got to come out right," he said to us, more than once. Poles line the fences embedded with Picasso-esque faces. D. Bill says it takes him 3 days to complete a carving, averaging somewhere in the range of 45 to 50 poles each winter, leaving him free during the better weather months to paint them.
He retired in 1982 and succinctly says that he was just looking for something to do. "I can't work outside in the cold, although I've got no heat in the garage. It's something to do in the winter."
Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations
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Bibliography:
On DVD - Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, "Takin' it to the Lakes," KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 1997-2001.
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations" by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, 2002.
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia" by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009. |
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