Whittling in the '60's

My first year as a YMCA Resident Camp Counselor introduced me to "whittling." My mentor and friend, Jim Goodwin II was a man of many talents. All of which he shared with anyone and everyone he could. At first, I admired the fact that he could have our youngest campers handling and working with an Exacto knife with confidence in very short order.
Thanks to my Dad, I am somewhat artistic and can visualize three dimensional aspects of objects to be carved or drawn. Seeing my first wood carving of a ball cut into a box out of a solid piece of wood did it for me. I was hooked. Here is a sampling of my pieces "whittled" in the mid 1960's.
The "Rabbit in the Wood" is one of my first pieces.
"Four balls in a cage" fascinated me to no end. I saw it in one of the whittling books Jim provided us with. Like many carvers, my first pieces are unpainted and not sanded. Some prefer the knife cuts for that "carved look." As you can see, the one thing I could have done is stain or protect the wood. Well, I didn't, I think all the handling and aging has given them a patina for protection. Most of my first pieces were carved with a Swiss Army knife. That "multi-purpose" knife went with me as I headed to Florida and Iceland for my tour of duty in the Naval Reserve. While waiting for a clearance to continue my Naval training, I was assigned a "Gate Guard" duty that enabled me to practice carving. My post was at one of the training buildings and once the classes commenced, I simply manned the gate until classes were over later in the afternoon. Sporadic visits by Chiefs or other personnel made for a lot of quiet time. I came up with an idea that made the time fly by. Our base used thin wooden spoons for coffee stirrers back then. ( They were thin, much like a tongue depressor only shaped like a spoon.) As a "Gate Guard" you're not allowed to do much of anything other than stand and watch. Carving on a thin wooden spoon was perfect. Both my knife and "spoon" could be easily hidden in my hands when someone approached. I came up with the idea of carving "names" out of the spoon. There was hardly any "chips" to see, and once again, it could be easily "put away."
Many of the Naval personnel who passed by me came to know me. I developed a good rapport with a number of Chiefs and Officers. In the morning, I'd sketch out the name of the person whom I was going to give the "spoon" to. That afternoon, on their way out, I'd offer it to them as a memento. I'd like to think that somewhere around the USA there are thin, wooden spoons with names carved on them setting on some one's shelve.
While on duty in Iceland, I show only a couple of carvings. Actually, I was really busy taking in the uniqueness of Iceland, so carving became a "fill-in" activity.

I carved in our room so I had to keep the "mess" to a minimum.













Some of the carvings have a distinctive feature that, at that time, came to be a "sign of the times." Here are the carvings that started it all...





Through the '70's and early '80's, I carved several relief name signs/plaques and in time, I put my carving case away... until February, 2009
I still have my Swiss Army Knife and the only two Exacto handles I ever bought. I guess age has the better of me and I admit that I enjoy working with the speed and fast "wood reduction" I can obtain with the Dremel, but I still find myself making a finish cut with my Exacto knives.