It is the cold and flu season. Sometimes it is a good thing to have a cold and a runny nose. How could that be?
It was probably one of the first tools I ever owned. They can be cheap giveaway and promotional items or very high priced specialty tools. They can also be a failsafe gift for any man when all else fails. Actually, that may not be true any more. Because of events on 9-11-01, they are also considered weapons.
As a small boy, my first knife was a right of passage to adulthood. My dad planted Trojan seed corn, and when I was about 8 years old they gave small pocketknives to all of their customers. I got my first knife then. Several years later for Christmas Santa gave me the holy grail of pocketknives, a Swiss army knife. The Swiss army knife got lost, but I still have that first knife; the blade shows many scratches from when I practiced my sharpening skills as a teenager.
I no longer have to sharpen my pocketknife. If I dull or lose my knife, I have many more in reserve. It seems like I lose or break them before the blade can become dull. Of course, a knife is not only a knife. It can be used to clean your fingernails or remove slivers, or as a makeshift hammer or screwdriver. You can scrape mud and grease from an object being repaired. I always use it when checking the planting depth of seeds. As a matter of fact, my knife has been used for everything except a weapon.
I do not believe a pocketknife is a weapon. If you do, that means I have a small arsenal in my possession. I have so many knives that it is not unusual for me to have two in my pants pocket at once. Most knives are generic tools. But I have several that are special, and being that I value them I have to be very careful with them.
Which brings me to the story of a Chicago Bulls game 5 winters ago. Farm Credit took a busload of customers to a Chicago Bulls game. Guess who forgot that you couldn’t bring knives, AKA weapons into major venues. In one pocket was my multi-tool knife and in the other my prized Buck knife. After failing the metal detector twice and being patted down, I had to empty my front pockets. Thank goodness I had a cold and a runny nose.
In my right hand I held out the bulky multi-tool knife that was in the right pocket. Since it had a blade, I had to throw my “weapon” into the garbage can. With my left hand I was able to wad my used handkerchief around the Buck knife and tube of Chapstick. I produced the Chapstick to explain the lumps in my pocket the pat down had revealed. The security agent dared not inspect the handkerchief further. My Buck knife was saved.
Thanks to Christmas 2020, I now own another knife. This one is special. When this Covid nightmare is over, I will have to be more careful about when I can carry it with me in public. Does anyone else have fond memories of a certain pocketknife?
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