Rich people aren't smarter than me
Jim was king of the invention. I looked back in the blog because I remembered someone commenting on Jim's leaf bag stand. Home Depot most certainly did rip off his idea! He got sick of the leaf bags always falling over so he constructed a stand that enabled the user to wrap the bag over the top (like a trash can) and voila! Easy yard cleanup. Then just remove the leaf stand and drag the full bag to the corner.
Tonight Jake did something really funny that reminded me so much of Jim. He was desperate to get down from the dinner table and watch the end of his Diego cartoon. But he was enjoying a brownie...and he was thirsty. So in an effort to save time, [this is a 19 month old we're talking about] Jake stacked the brownie on the top of his sippy cup, took a bite, and then immediately washed it down with some water. I thought maybe the first time was an accident, but no - this was a deliberate attempt to streamline the brownie/drink/Diego process. I was so stunned that I just stood there watching him for a few minutes.
And then I remembered something that Jim said. "Rich people aren't smarter than me, they just thought of an idea and had it marketed first. I just need to have my idea."
Jim spent some time on his ideas.
-As a little guy he engineered an elaborate chipmunk trap while camping with his family.
-He designed a picture frame while he was at Stone Container, made of corrugated cardboard, that could also hold small momentos in the back.
-He went on to make the aforementioned leaf stand.
-He created a no-tip chair brace for Rachel when she was about Jake's age and she started tipping back on her chair at the dinner table. Jim put the clamp on that one right away. (Later we had to ask his Dad to replicate it with Jake.)
-After blowing part of his finger off with the router, he created a method whereby he could use the router pretty much without touching it. (Who can blame him on that one!?)
I know he had more ideas and inventions. He looked into a patent on the leaf bag stand. It's really expensive.
I wondered tonight if Jake is going to follow in Jim's footsteps and invent things. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.
posted by Kate at 8:33 PM
2 Comments:
When we were with you guys I saw a lot of Jim in Jake. How he looked at something and then tried to determine how it went together, twisting it and looking at it. The little wheels in his head turning. The eyes just focusing and concentrating on it. I could just imagine his mind .. "HOW IS THIS THING DOING THAT"?
Jim was always figuring out this or that and Jake is going to be just like him.
We used to say "if it's broke, try to fix it, you can't make it any "broker". It will just go in the trash in smaller pieces."
Love to all
Papa
5:22 AM
A couple months back, I took the kids over to RIT to see a pop-up book art exhibit. The exhibit was really cool and they had large-size examples of all the different folds/pop-ups used. You could open and close these large-scale "example books" to see how the fold actually worked. As I was opening and closing the book over and over again trying to figure it out, I thought about Jimmy. I knew he wouldn't even need to look at the example, he could've read the description of the fold and in his head known exactly how it work (and probably how to improve it!). There were several that I walked away still not understanding the mechanics of. I wished Jimmy had been there to explain it to me. He was also really good at that.
10:11 AM
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