Reel
Father Makes Fourth Hardware Store Trip Before Noon
· 1 min 8 sec
Field Notes, Episode 5: A dad makes the Saturday hardware store trip the way nature intended: repeatedly, and with the wrong bolt.
Transcript
Every Saturday at 7 a.m., the father makes his first migration to the hardware store. Today, he is hanging one picture.
He travels alone, carrying a screw in a sandwich bag and the certainty that this will be one trip.
The first find is modest: one wall anchor, seventy-four cents, selected after eight minutes of silent comparison.
On screenHearth & Hammer Hardware · Aisle 12 Wall Anchors · Sat 7:26 AM · 1/4 in. wall anchor · $0.74 · $0.74 · Thank you for choosing the first one.
By 8:21, he is back, the first anchor in his palm. It is the wrong size. The other size is acquired.
On screenHearth & Hammer Hardware · Aisle 12 Wall Anchors · Sat 8:21 AM · 5/16 in. wall anchor · $0.74 · $0.74 · Exchanges under one dollar require patience.
An employee offers to help. He declines, as his father declined, and his father's father.
By the fourth visit, he greets the cashier by name. Milton has begun setting the other size aside. Neither man mentions it.
At home, he makes two pencil marks and drills three holes. The screw requires one.
By 4 p.m. the picture is hung. It is crooked.
He will return in the morning for a level.
Satire. Everything in this reel is made up for comedy.
