Why Stainless?

Why---beyond the fact that he was an artist and craftsman who could do anything both pragmatic and beautiful with and to steel---was Steve known to many of us as just 'Stainless'? The nickname came about during the time that another artist, the wizard brewer of the ales in The High Street cellar, was also named Steve. Many was the time, during sessions at the pub one would have go into an aside explaining which Steve was being addressed or spoken about. 'Brewer Steve' (or 'Steve the brewer') was the shortcut I heard most often. Inspired by the name 'Painless' for the dentist in the film, M*A*S*H, I began referring to Mr Rynearson with the one-word moniker.

-Brad

The Skate Board

After news got out about Dad's unexpected death emails came pouring in from everyone who had ever knew him. We are pretty sure his address book was in the van with him, so it was lost in the accident. I had emailed and called everyone I could but asked others to contact anyone they could and published my email with the obituaries that I had run in Oregon and Idaho. Over the following weeks and months I was contacted by many who had known and loved Dad. While it was very overwhelming and emotional for me to be a receiver of so much grief from all who contacted me, there was some joy in it as well. People I had either never met, some even knew of, contacted me to say such nice things about my father and shared some touching or just plain incredible stories.

One of my favorites was from one of Dad's teenage girlfriends, Valerie. Here is a portion of her email to me:

"Steve was my first boyfriend. I moved to Huntington around 1968. My Dad worked for the UP RR. Shelley, Paula, Steve and I were like the (4) musketeers. When I met your Dad is when skate boarding was popular. Oh how I thought he was the coolest guy around. He gave me a ring and we went steady. I think I still have the ring. As I was telling Shelley the other day now that skate boarding is popular again I can't see one of these young men with their long hair and tight skinny pants with out thinking of your Dad."

The Shelley mentioned in the message from Valerie also emailed me and later sent me a picture of Dad on the skateboard mentioned and had this to say:

"I'm sending you a picture of your Dad I took years ago, 1965 and he was 13 years old. He was VERY good on a Skateboard back in those days. We all had a grand time together. He also had a hair style at the time like the Beatles (which at that time was ALL the Rage) . Every time I see a kid on a board I'll think of him."

In time I will share other pictures that friends of Dad sent me but this was one of the first that came in and when it first hit me that there was so much about my father I still did not know...and so many memories of him I had yet to learn. I had felt this way over the years about my mother, but the notion of it seemed less surprising to me since she had died when I was only 15, basically a child, so I never was able to have an adult relationship with her. However, I was very close with Dad and felt like we had shared a lot of ourselves over the years. But like with anyone, any relationship, you never completely know someone...there is always more to discover and learn. I had seen lots of pictures of Dad in his full fledged hippy days when he and my mother were first married. Thinking of Dad as a skater boy, it just seemed to punk rock to me! I so wish I could talk to him and tease him about it.

Later when we were going through Dad's things it made finding the actual skateboard mentioned in these two women's messages mean more to me. I could put it in context. It also made me laugh, because of COURSE he had kept it!

More Than One Of Everything

I have been working on some new pieces but they are not finished yet so thought I'd post a small but fun one for you. While most of Dad's friends and family were aware of his obsessive collections, I am unsure any of us knew just how much so. Everyone knew he collected shot glasses, stamps, canning jars, various antiques, etc. We found some hilarious and baffling things in April when we first started going through his belongings. Here are a few:

I am not sure if Dad kept every whiskey bottle he encountered, but he sure kept a lot! When I opened this large box full whiskey boxes/bottles I could hear Dad say "But they'll be worth something someday!".


There should actually be quite a few more of these: insulators. These were used on old power lines, etc. I remember seeing these on Dad's desk over the years. These are a perfect example of something that has little to no functional purpose any longer (in Dad's home they were often use as a paper weight or door jam if not only admired), but what Dad valued in spite of that. They are beautiful.

Some of you will recognize these: Dad's pencil sharpener collection. These are the kind that mount to a wall and are most often seen in classrooms. Some time in the last decade Dad started collecting them. At one house he had them lined up on the highest shelf of one of his many book cases. During when of my visits from NY I spotted them and asked what on earth was he collecting them for. He said they would be worth more as a collection, instead of by themselves. That is what some of Dad's collecting was I think, a sense of bringing purpose or value to something he found interesting that was over looked by others.

Many of you will also recognize these: beer mats. I have always snagged them as well, but actually use them at home. When ever I traveled I would often save them to send to Dad since I knew he collected them. We found more than one container full of them, and various scattered in other files and boxes.

Martha, Krista and I laughed out loud when we discovered a container full of bottle openers. Some were antiques, but many were just regular old bottle openers. Dozens and dozens of them!

We also laughed when we opened this up. This container is bigger than this picture indicates and its packed full of old bottle caps. It was discoveries like this that made me want more than anything for Dad to be able to explain to us. What was he going to do with them?

There was a ton more but some things I am saving for other stories. We found boxes and boxes of old newspapers and magazines. Of course, hundreds of canning jars and shot glasses. I promise to share those in coming entries.

Jenny's back-yard [year?]

For no particular reason except that Stainless felt an urge to cook, drink, eat, and smoke cigars one afternoon, he sent out a call the day before. He, if I remember correctly, expected a few more people; the weather was drizzly. I think we were photographed using a tripod & timer. Behind the camera, a huge spread. Way too much cheese, ale, meat, for a mere quartet, but we managed. I never felt so full in my life.
-brad

Three Beards

Another of the many wonderful e-mails that Brad starting sending shortly after Dad's death:

That's Leroy Hershberger to your father's left. After I introduced them they became fast friends. Leroy and his family I've known for 40 years; he was about 9 then. They are Amish-Mennonite. Leroy is a remarkable guy---a Kansas farm mechanic with a BA from Yale in English Literature. When this photograph was taken he was again adopting a traditional old-order Amish look in tribute to his grandfather who had recently died.