h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In my last weeks of high school I took a job at the local newspaper company. I worked in the circulation department and was involved in bundling news papers and driving a delivery truck thru the rural areas late at night. There were some unique tools the job required including a rubber thumb stol which was worn like a thimble to assure a firm grip on paper, and a ring knife worn on the index finger for cutting the bailing twine used for tying stacks of newspapers into managable bundles. I soon realized that I needed a sturdy knife to use out on the delivery route as well.

Within days I was shopping for such a knife that would serve my needs. As luck had it I found a selection of low priced knifes with surgical stainless steel blades and one was a large single blade Barlow. Fully opened it was nearly nine inches long and the flat bone handles provided
a sure grip for leverage. So it became my left rear pocket's companion
until I needed it.

One very old gentleman who sold papers on the street corner at night asked to look at the Barlow when he saw me cutting twine one evening just before the press began to roll the early edition. He loitered with us until his order was filled and then he would go sell his papers. He offered to sharpen it for me for a couple of dollars. After talking with some of the regular workers I was informed that he could whet an edge on it that I'd be able to shave with. So I accepted his offer and gave him the knife to sharpen when I took my days off. On returning to work he called me over to where he was sitting and presented me with my now dangerously sharp Barlow knife. As I paid him he cautioned me about using it.

I never had to sharpen it again in the time I owned it. When I left the job at the end of my second year in college I planned to pursue some campus life and join a fraturnity. I laid the Barlow in a dresser drawer and all but forgot I had it. But a quark of fate came with my transition. One of the fellows in the frat bore the same last name as the old man at the newspaper and when I inquired he told me that the old gentleman was in fact his estranged grandfather that he had never met.

One evening this fellow was in the car with me and some other brothers and I pointed out the old gentleman to him as we drove past him on the way back to the frat house. He asked me to stop the car and go ask if he would be willing to meet with his grandson at long last. I obliged him and went to explain to the old timer that I had a special friend with me who wanted to meet him and when I mentioned who he was the old man was delighted. On returning to the car I reported that his grandad was quite eager to meet him and for him to take as long as he needed. The guys and I listened to the radio for a few minutes before our brother rejoined us with a newpaper and wet eyes. There was a noticable similarity between them in stature and manner.

Within a year or so the old gentleman passed away. My fraturnity brother came to me thanking me again for introducing him to his grandad and explaining that he had stopped by to chat with him on occasion to get to know him better and gain the answers he wasn't granted growing up. A few days later when I was dressing to go to class I noticed that Barlow knife in the drawer with my socks and it didn't take an instant to picked it up and put it in my pocket as I knew just where it should be now.

When I arrived at the fraturnity house later I found my friend and called him aside. Producing the Barlow from my pocket I explained how I came by it and how his grandad offered to sharpen it for me when I first met him at work. So I handed it to him explaining it was a gift from his grandad and myself for him and with it he would have something his grandad had perfected with his skills and talent. That was quite an emotional moment for him. For me that Barlow knife was only a work knife I used on the job but for him it could be an heirloom, a right of passage, and a reminder of the fleeting interlude he had with a granfather he hadn't been allowed to know as a child.

Thanks so much for sharing that story - it brought a tear to my eye as well