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A sheddie poem at Christmas

Down the garden and over the lawn
Pop wonders off each day
Unlocks his shed and opens the door…

POP’S SHED
By Robin Shepard



Down the garden and over the lawn

Pop wonders off each day

Unlocks his shed and opens the door

And breathes deep as if to say

‘I’m safe down here  I’m safe in the shed

No chores to do like “Make your bed.”

No ring on the phone

I’ll be left well alone

While I’m fiddling around in the shed.’


So it’s

Down the garden and over the lawn

Pop escapes from the house most days

And it’s in the shed he scratches his head

As life enters a sheddies phase

On the workbench

There’s some rivets to clench

And a nut to fix to a bolt

With a nine sixteenth socket

He took from his pocket

He locks it up tight with a jolt.

And there’s a board to plane

Then sand and stain

Then wax and polish again and again

And taking a file

He will pause for a while

While he contemplates what to do next

Shall he dress  the cracked  tile

Or throw it out on the pile

With the failures that leave him quite vexed?

 
Down the garden and over the lawn

Pop escapes to his shed most days

There he sketches his plans

With ideas simple or grand

As his mind wonders off in a haze

While he plans his next task

Don’t confuse him and ask

What exactly he’s planning to do

‘Cos it might all depend

What he finds in the end

In the supply stacks where nothing is new.

 
So it’s

Down the garden and over the lawn

To spend all day in his shed

Making things new and sometimes instead

He’ll be mending the broken and torn

It was down in the shed his finger bled

When he cut it off with the saw

It was in the shed that my dear old Pop said

He picked his finger up off the floor.

And now his hand’s short

Of the finger that caught

In the blade of the circular saw

For it failed to join back

When nailed on with a tack

So that finger’s no more on his paw.

 

One day down in the shed

He might be found dead

Dead with a smile on his face

‘Cos Pop’s always said

“To my shed, I am wed

It is really my favourite place.”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Shed magazine December/January 2024 issue 112, on sale now

The cover story in our 2023 year ending issue is on the jaw dropping memorabilia collection of Terry Dalton. This is not simply a small room filled with a few bits and pieces, this is an enormous cathedral-like shed, crammed with memories. The collection is truly varied but includes a huge chunk of 1950s American Graffiti Americana including the cars and diners from that decade. Our own Kiwana has not been overlooked and there is an enormous swag of that as well. You really need to see it to appreciate it. Terry’s shed probably houses the most significant private collection of memorabilia in NZ.
“Terry likes collectibles. He has several extensive collections of different sorts of memorabilia, much of which he has bought online. He collects, for instance, oil bottles and tins, 1957 Chevrolet memorabilia, F1 stuff, musicians’ autographs, and the picks of well-known guitarists.
One corner of the shed, furnished with plush theatre seats, is devoted to the display of his treasures. He likes the collectibles not only for their own sake but also because they have a known value and are readily saleable; there is a market for them. He says that most will be sold as he gets older.“

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