My Grandfather's Lamp

MY GRANDFATHER'S LAMP

From the quiet of unobtrusive years
my Grandfather's Lamp remained unlit,
cluttered amongst the grimy engineering
of a garage's accrual. Coming across
the stain of tin and glass there is
recollection calling back to the mid 1960s
of a Lamplight's glimmer. There, dressed
in faded grey overalls, a cigarette -
always a cigarette - impatiently dangling
from intense lips he would stand at
his garage lathe with big hands mentored by
a Depression and two World Wars: forging,
creating, seeking precision in the friction
of metal guided by the parameter of eye.

Now, his grandson watches from forty years
removed, and picking up the dust-laced Lamp
I feel him across the canyon of years:
his beautiful smile and extraordinary gentleness
upon me once more, "Lad, want to help?"


Notes :

My maternal Grandfather died in 1968, aged 67, when I was not yet a teenager. He came from a Yorkshire (England) family and migrated to Australia in 1920. An Engineer by profession he worked for many decades at what was H.V.McKay Sunshine Harvester (later taken over the the Canadian multi-national Massey Ferguson) that chiefly constructed Tractors and Farming equipment. It was the largest employer in my home district, finally closing in the late 1980s being unable to compete with cheaper machinery being made Overseas.

He married my Grandmother (affectionately known by us as Su-Su on account of her first name being Susan) in 1929, Mum was born in 1930.

My Grandfather built my home in the 1940s - it's built like Fort Knox in many respects, a true 'Engineers House', practical and without pretension. As a young child I recall him spending many hours in the Garage, building all manner of things - he was a perfectionist, and fanatically so. Yet, he was always gentle toward me, and with a huge grin and he'd conjure sweets from all sorts of places that would amaze me. In the Garage, despite his death well over 40 years ago, is aspects of his life still. His work benches, his notes scribbled on the walls, many of his tools (still in working order). My great regret is not knowing him as an adult. When I came across this lamp, which he used to work by in the Garage, a wealth of memories came to the fore.