Friday, October 3, 2008

Ootie Riggin'

Dad has a long history of cobbling together bits and pieces, scraps and spare parts from several things to make something work.  He was so well known for it at Republic Steel that they came to call this style of repair work 'Ootie Riggin'.

Apparently a couple of his sons-in-law have been studying his work.  I ran across this example of  'Ootie Riggin' when we went to Laurel County for StalkerDays...

 

When the 120 Volt hookup for Ted's RV turned out not to be 120 Volts it took some serious 'Ootie Riggin' to get air conditioning in Ted and Luci's RV.  Here is a close up of some of the details...


It's good to see that some family traditions will be carried on.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

One thing we learned from Dad was to never let a few minor mishaps spoil a good time. Chris has definitely taken this trait after Dad. He has worked on my washer, dishwasher and garage door opener and gotten them all working again. He saves Ted and me a fortune in repair bills.

Anonymous said...

If it were not for medicinal uses of spit and the mechanical uses of duct tape I would be out a forunte in doctor bills and repair costs. I learned well from the master of the Afro Engineering.

Anonymous said...

That sure does remind me of home sweet home. Most of our house was held up by Ottie Riggin. Ever our cars. Remember the time Dad fixed his car door by putting a card board box in the window. Never mind that it was a Kotex box. It worked just fine. Luci still hasn't gotten over it. Just so you know Luci, if you had gone door to door all around the neighbor hood getting everyone's table scraps for several of you teen age years a little Kotex box would be a minor thing to deal with. So really Dad saved me a lot of embarassed moments. Who gets embarassed after being the scrap girl for so many years. Not me.

Anonymous said...

Yes I always say we were inoculated against humiliation when we were young. I just wonder if our kids feel the same way. After all they grew up with the round man, the bun lady, the crazy woman in the bubble house, the coupon queen and Michelle.