The process of emptying the garage basically took six months. We held a couple of garage sales which moved some items, but not as much as we had hoped. Gerry took Dad's big tool cabinet. Doug took the older, smaller one which was the one Dad originally built when he was thirty or so. There were dozens of cans of paint and various products which we took the recycling depot. Hundreds of pounds of metal. I brought about six snow shovels to Hamilton, as well as a gas weed-whacker.
There was a point when Dad had to come to terms with his possessions, and what it meant to "divest" himself of the tools of his trade. It didn't fully hit home until the time that I had arranged for the purchase of his original red tool box and socket wrenches for about $75. A buyer had driven in from Hamilton to close the deal, but Dad thought the price I had set was unreasonably low. How do you put a price on the tools that represent so much? How do you put a dollar value on the tool box that was your very first, and that you took the time to hand paint your name across the lid?
The truth is, you don't. You don't sell them. You won't. So in the end, I ended up taking that toolbox to Hamilton, along with some other items that seemed too unique or rare to just throw away.
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