Frank LaRoque writes:
Friends,
This happened to me quite a few years ago and I finally decided to
relate the events for you all.Got a hankie?
I had a big shop downtown and I shared parking lots with a very
popular breakfast and lunch cafe.
It was in the spring and I had just started to open my side door that
looked out into the parking lot for the fresh spring air and I saw a
small boy standing on the step watching me as I was fixing a wooden
doll that needed a head reattached. I was holding the head in place
waiting for the super glue to set. He looked up at me and said," Are
you Santa Claus?" Just then his mother came up and told her son,
"Don't bother the man". I said it was fine and invited them into my
shop for a quick tour. The boy was about 8 or 9 and his eyes were
the size of saucers as we walked through the shop and his mom
explained to me that her son had a severe learning disability and
loved to see mechanical things.
I make a wooden doo-dad that some of the old members have
received from me. They are a three dimensional cutout done on the
band saw, (Maybe one of you will share theirs with us in a photo). I
asked her if they could stay and I would make something special for
him that would not take too much time and I would really like to do
it for him as he was so taken with my shop. May be he touched my
heart a little...
So, I took a square block of wood about 4 inches on the sides and
told him that this block had a surprise inside just for him.
I asked him what his favorite thing in the whole world was and he
said,"Baseball". I laid out a side profile of a baseball player on one
side and a fielders mitt on the other. His eyes lit up and he reached
for it and I said that he must wait until was done with it. He looked
at me as to say, "It is perfect now, don't screw it up".
I have a box in the shop that I stand on because I am somewhat
height challenged. I asked his mom if it was ok for him to stand in it to
watch me cut out the figures out of the block of wood. The height was
just right, his eyes were just at the right height to follow every move I made
and stood stock still as he watched the player and the mitt come to life.
As I handed it to him I looked his mother and she was standing there
with tears running down her face and the most wonderful look in her
eyes that can be imagined. The little boy climbed off the box and threw
his arms around me and said, "I know you are Santa and thank you for
this special gift, Mom and I have to go now, and thank you again." His
mother was overwhelmed and hugged me and thanked me for the gift.
I never saw either one of them again.
Years went by and in the spring of the year I had the door open to
let in the fresh spring air and I was working at my bench, carving the
University of Oregon Duck jumping out of the O when a small voice
said, " You must be Santa". I remembered a small boy saying that to
me so long ago, but, when I looked around there was a well dressed
young man in a snappy casual sport suit with a very pretty woman on
his arm. He turned to her and said, "This is the man I tell you about."
He told me that his learning disability was related to the loss of his
father and at that young age had given up on everything and that the
doctors could not do anything and that he was sinking deeper and
deeper into the morass of depression and no one could find him to
help. His mother was at her wits end and they moved to another
state to find help for him. He would not let go of the wooden figure I
had made for him and it struck a cord in his mind and the cure was in
the belief of the magic that something could be made out of a nothing
block of wood. His cure was complete. He and his new wife were
passing through my little town on their way to a new job that he had
after graduating from the University of Oregon.
Now, that is the end of my story.....I never saw him again and I
never learned his name.
Respectfully,
Frank N. LaRoque
~~~~~
John Polgar replies:
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting and working with Frank,
here's a photo. The only thing missing is the pipe and wreath of smoke...
But I must admit, this photo was just a couple years ago and he was
quite younger when he met the boy. I think the young lad saw the inner
being, "his eyes how they twinkled...", You be the judge.
John Polgar
Clearwater, FL