Paul E Penkala
I was born in Fulton, a small town in Upstate New York. As a pre-baby boomer, I spent most of my “growing up years” doing what most kids did in those days…playing all day and going home when it got dark. The town had a whopping population of about 12,000 and parents never worried about their kids and seldom locked their doors, if ever!
The Barge Canal System split the town of Fulton in half from east to west. It was always fun watching ships being raised and lowered in the locks as they passed through on their way to or from the St. Lawrence Seaway.
After high school, I spent four years at the State University of New York at Oswego also known as SUNY as an Industrial Arts major. I learned a valuable lesson in my freshman year at Oswego…that is to say, “Never park your car facing Lake Ontario in the winter time!” Snow comes horizontally off the lake and packs a car’s engine compartment solid…and very few garages or repair shops were heated in those days so you were really stuck. As a note, this area averages over 300 inches of snow each winter and the blizzard of ’66 dumped 133″ in 30 hours pushed by 75 mph wind gusts. Drifts were 50 feet and telephone poles didn’t exist! Main mode of transportation—SNOW SHOES!
I left upstate after the blizzard of ’66 and headed for Anchorage where the climate was much milder! Years passed, jobs came and went, and I decided to go back to school once again. I was graduated with distinction from Simpson University with a degree in Business and Human Resource Management while working 40 to 50 hours a week.
What to do in retirement?
That’s a pretty tough question because one has to reflect on his previous 65 or 70 years or whenever you make the plunge into retirement. Some people never do retire…maybe I’m one of those!
At 65, I had just finished up my last 10 years raising my kids and working for the Pella Window Co. Previously, I had owned a specialty building materials company in Northern California distributing Pozzi Windows & Doors, Diamond Cabinets, and pre-hung doors out of my pretty advanced door shop that included a Norfield $50,000 automatic pre-hang machine. Before that, I was on and off airplanes, working for a division of Rockwell International that specialized in importing woodworking machines from Italy & Germany. Hence, lots of travel abroad as well as the 11 western states. I’m not sure how many air miles I’ve logged over the years but, traveling the mid-west as an Applications Engineer in the Paper Converting Industry when I was first out of college helped add lots more air miles.
In those days, that is to say the 60’s & 70’s, most of the planes in the mid-west were turbo prop F-27’s which had two engines, wing above the fuselage, and the landing gear came out of the wing!!! It looked like a stork coming in for a landing and it was near impossible to hear a conversation when you were flying on one of these planes as they rumbled though the air. The standing joke was that there was always a truck following an F-27 to pick up the parts as they fell off in flight! With that said, I really didn’t want to travel after I retired; although, I did take cruises to Alaska and South America with my girlfriend, Debby after I turned 70.
Those were fun but, for the most part, I find myself to be a “home body” working in my heated garage, shaded by a large walnut tree which keeps it cool in the summer. Originally, I continued carving ducks and geese after I retired, as I’ve carved birds for the past 40 years, whenever time allowed. I started a limited edition of what I call my “ANTIQUE ANNIVERSARY GOOSE DECOY” for those folks who stayed married for 25 or 50 years and no one could figure out what to get them as they already had everything!
These Goose Decoys were mantel pieces that looked 150 to 200 years old and very pleasing to the eye, although, it looks like I’m just getting a bit to old to carve these big birds anymore! Hence, the move to whirligigs and puzzles as they are much lighter and fun to create.
I bought a used PFAFF sewing machine made in 1961 to sew the rip stop sail cloth on my sailboat whirligigs and I’ve found that I actually enjoy sewing!! I added a Hegner Scrollsaw to my shop for cutting out puzzles and figures for my animated whirligigs with propellers that drive the figures. All in all, I’m finding it great fun bringing smiles to little kids and adults alike as they play with my puzzles and watch my whirligigs on a windy day!
Paul is widowed and has a daughter, son and two grandsons. His main enjoyment when alone is creating whirligigs and puzzles!