I was cleaning up my kitchen a few minutes ago and sprayed a bleach solution on my cutting board to let it sit for ten minutes, as recommended, to sanitize before I propped it back up at the back of my stovetop. This is not your average, run-of-the-mill cutting board. This is a cutting board made of laminated plywood layers with brown Formica as the top layer. This cutting board is in the shape of a pig. And my father made it.
My dad graduated from college in 1941--the first and only of his huge family to do so--with a degree in Industrial Arts and (probably) a minor in Physical Education. He started his career as a woods teacher and coach, with a wife and one baby. Then, World War II happened. I wasn't around for the conversations, but he (and Mom, I guess) decided that he should take a commission in the US Naval Reserve for the duration of the war. After a little training in the Navy, he went off to war, spending some time on an LST, then as Navigator on a troop transport, the USS Henrico, APA 45. When the war was over, he was put on inactive duty just long enough to take on another teaching career and have me....then the conflict in Korea started, and he was off to war again. This time, he was kept on active duty for quite a long time. Lt. JG Floyd D. Covill eventually became Commander Floyd D. Covill, and his little family followed him all over the place. My brother was born while we lived in Coronado, CA, at one of his stations. When we were in Japan, in 1958, Dad got orders that the USNR was cutting back on active duty personnel, so we became civilians again, although he was still on reserve duty. Back to teaching again, this time in the Chicago area--Elmwood Park High School. Industrial Arts, and coaching.
Dad was always on the lookout for easy little projects for his Beginning Woods students to do. The piggy cutting board was one of them. About the time I was graduating from college and planning my wedding, he brought one home. I snatched it up immediately. Thus, the pig became a part of my kitchen from 1969, onward. I've never had another cutting board. I've never found one with the same character!
For decades, I only used the wooden side to cut. Didn't want to scratch up the Formica side. But eventually--not so very long ago--I figured that all of my sanitizing attempts probably weren't good enough due to the porousness of the wood. I made the mistake of putting Piggy in the dishwasher. Not good! It came out dry...cracked...and very, very sad. Thereafter, I decided that if I wanted to keep it longer, I was going to have to use the Formica side. That has worked. 'Tis much easier to sanitize with the Clorox Clean-Up, and no one has died from germ exposure. Whew!
I have three other treasures that my dad created for me as a result of my requests at wedding time. One is a wagon seat that I commissioned to stay at the foot of the bed to hold bed linens. That silly thing has seen a lot of use over the years. Then there is the bookcase with three adjustable shelves. OMG! Whatever would I have done without that through the years??! It wasn't always easy to find a place for it, but it holds a multitude of treasured books. Once, very early in my first marriage, I saw a picture in a catalog of a rack to hold cook books, with two index-card-sized drawers underneath. I asked Dad if he could make one for me. He requested a picture and dimensions, so I cut out the catalog pic and gave it to him. Voila! In short order, I had a place to stash my cook books and recipe cards. Most years, it has been on top of the refrigerator. Love that thing!
Oh...I have one more treasure, mostly not seen. It is in a box of my souvenirs. I think I've written about it before: a gold-painted wooden star on a square wooden plaque background, which was nailed to my bedroom door right after I got the lead role in the Fall Play during my senior year of high school. I didn't see that one coming! I went on to get the leads in the other two school drama productions that year, so it stayed up until my parents moved out of that house after I graduated from college. I don't know who commissioned that star--whether my mom asked Dad to make it, or if Dad did it on his own. I only know that it thrilled me to know how much my parents valued my achievement at that point in my life. (Note to my daughter: Don't throw that away after I'm gone!!)
When Dad made furniture, he signed and dated it somewhere out of sight. The piggy cutting board doesn't have a Floyd signature, but you can be sure the rest of the stuff does. Treasures, all!
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