When I was about 6 and we lived in Lauderhill FL, we had a big garage. My father partitioned it off using a dividing cordon so that half the garage had the workbench and tools in it and the other half was a living area. There was my toybox, a big metal box that I kept stuff in, a green couch that folded back into a bed and a coffee table. On one wall he put up shelves on brackets that were adjustable up and down. The shelves were white pine and unfinished.

One day, while playing in the living area I got the urge to create. I wanted to create a symbol. The only symbol I knew was the cross that I had seen before. I took a short section of shelf down off the wall and studied it. It was perfect white wood, soft to the fingernail.

I went through the partition into the garage portion and went to the workbench. There I found a medium sized flat bladed screw driver. Perfect I thought. I went back to where the shelf lay on the couch. I proceeded to spend a great deal of time using the screw driver to carve a foot tall cross into the wood. I made the carvings deep and clean. I was quite proud of myself really. And then it hit me, what would my father think? Should I have carved up his shelf? My euphoria evaporated immediately. I put the shelf back up and tried to clean up the wood chips.

My father got home that evening, and I was in my room. He appeared at my door, and said “Come with me.” I followed him to the garage. Once we were in the family room area, he picked the shelf up off of the coffee table and handed it to me. “How did this happen?” he asked me. “I don’t know?” I tried to answer. The next thing I knew I was flying across the room landing against my toybox. “Don’t you ever fucking lie to me again!” he shouted and stormed out of the room. I laid there for a few minutes trying to get my breath and trying to stop crying. Then I went back to my room and got in bed. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time… Would have it ended differently if I’d have told him I did it? I had no idea and no way of finding out.

I never have tried my hand at wood carving again.