My Little Wagon

By Jim Hagarty
2013

I am just about finished building a wooden wagon on wheels that can be used to haul speakers and monitors around. I have never built anything like this and didn’t know that I could. But a fellow musician showed up with four wheels that he had bought and he asked me to build it because I told him I had some space and a few tools.

I took on the job, pretty sure I’d make a mess of it. But he had such confidence in me, that somehow, I found the know-how to smack the thing together. He also kept a bit of pressure on, calling to find out how it was coming along.

So, the friendly timeline combined with his total confidence in me, has produced this little vehicle which I will paint today. Being a perfectionist, I put more lumber in it than in an old sailing ship and it’s so heavy, we will need another wagon to carry it to the place we want it to be. I am pretty proud of my creation, however, and know that it only came about because of my friend’s belief that I could do it.

Sometimes, it seems, trying to live up to someone else’s expectations is not such a bad thing.

Author: Jim Hagarty

I am a 72-year-old retired journalist, busy recovering from a lifelong career as an unretired journalist. This year marks a half century of my scratching out little fables about life. My interests include genealogy, humour and music. I live in a little blue shack in Canada and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble. I am not that good at it. I also spent years teaching journalism. Poor state of journalism today: My fault. I have a family I don't deserve, a dog that adores me, and two cars the junk yard refuses to accept. My prized possessions include my old guitar and a razor my Dad gave me when I was 14 and which I still use when I bother to shave. Oh, and my great-great-grandfather's blackthorn stick he brought from Ireland in the 1850s. I have only one opinion but it is a good one: People take too many showers.