Building a wood crate (Peep hole in the garage)

     Sometimes as kids (age 12) we were influenced by others and this time in our lives the Our Gang Comedies were popular, so I’m not sure if it was an original idea to start a club (LMB club - Initials from our last names) and build a wooden crate car or an outgrowth of the Our Gang Series. Nevertheless we started a club and attempted to build a wood crate car, we used my Dad’s garage, which was in the alley and not being used for a car.  Most garages in the city were accessed through the alley but they were built to hold smaller cars and were not usually used for cars when I grew up.  My Dad said go ahead use the garage for your project which we did but we were messy, boards and nails laying all over the place (OSHA would not approve). 

     One day when Frank, Reinhard (Rein) and I were working in the garage, I stepped on a board that had a nail driven in it that pointed straight up, well it went straight through the bottom of my foot. I was immediately taken to the doctor for a Tetanus shot.  That was a tough lesson in organization and the advantages of keeping a clean work area. 

     After my recovery from the nail incident we continued our project but with a little more attention paid to neatness.  The garage was technically our clubhouse as well as where we worked on our crate.  Building a wood crate is fun but sometimes kids loose their focus and get bored with the mundane task of a project so as a kid it's natural to come up with something else to fill in the void.   

     Well, one day while Frank and I were working on the crate, Rein thought it was important to look out for intruders and proceeded to drill a hole (peep hole) in the garage wall using a hand drill provided by my Dad, which seemed to make sense to all of us since we wanted to see if anyone was sneaking up on us.   Logic to an adolescent is much different than an adult and although we didn’t have any enemies to sneak up on us it still seemed logical to be prepared as the boy scouts say.  But if one peep hole was good then multiple holes would even be better so Rein thought why not 2 or 3.  Again this explanation did not sit well with my Dad as he did not agree with our reasoning or the excessive number of holes drilled in the side of the garage. We were allowed to continue with a project but given stern instructions to leave the garage in tact with no more modifications.  We did eventually finish the crate with some help and enjoyed pushing each other down the alley until we got bored and moved on to some other activity.