The 74-year-old wheelbarrow sat in Flinn & Maguire’s funeral home two weeks ago. It seemed fitting to the four grown children of James Drake Sr. that it should be present to celebrate his 86 years of life.
Inside the wheelbarrow laid this sign:
The Story of this Wheelbarrow
“Dad (James Drake, Sr.) was 12-years-old working on a job carrying hod for his Dad (Grandpa Charlie Drake) laying brick. Dad was getting behind carrying hod with the buckets. Grandpa Charlie asked Dad if he bought him a wheelbarrow, would it help him be more efficient.
Grandpa Charlie bought Dad this wheelbarrow for him when he was 12-years-old. Dad used this wheelbarrow and kept it cleaned out after each use. This wheelbarrow is 74 years old.”
Youngest son Dennis Drake explained further that his father was getting behind mixing mortar by hand and carrying six bricks in one arm and two bricks in the other hand — with the help of his new wheelbarrow which was narrow enough to fit through doorways, 12-year-old Jim Drake could haul 50 or 60 brick at one time.
Eldest son James Drake, Jr. (a.k.a. Rick to the family) noted, “We kept that wheelbarrow spic and span — there’s a lot of days we didn’t leave the jobsite until it was cleaned up. The wheelbarrow and all our tools and shovels never got to the point of having to use chemicals on them — we kept them clean and shiny using a wire brush and water.”
Youngest son Dennis Drake, owner of Drake Construction and Remodeling agreed. “We didn’t get into the truck until the shovels and wheelbarrows were cleaned,” he said. “Most wheelbarrows today won’t last ten years — some beat the mortar out with hammers.”
When asked if they ever played with the wheelbarrow, eldest daughter Teresa Carpenter said, “We all pushed Dad’s wheelbarrow around at some time.”
Debby Drake VanLandingham, third child of James Drake, Sr., said she hadn’t heard the wheelbarrow story until her brother Dennis shared it at the hospital. She later suggested displaying the wheelbarrow at the funeral and also added these words:
“Fact: Grandpa Charlie (Drake) laid brick till he was 86-years-old. Dad was also 86 and still laying brick the week before he passed away.”
Intrigued by the wheelbarrow lesson, I wondered what else Jim Drake, Sr. taught his children.
Teresa, who previously worked for the Bargersville Fire Department for 15 years and as a corrections officer for Johnson County said, “My father made me rotate the tires on my Grandfather’s 1962 Ford Falcon before he’d drive me to take my test to get my driver’s license when I was 16. It was my grandfather’s pride and joy,” as well as the rare automatic in our family.
Jim Drake Sr. named his daughter “with no ‘h’ in her name, and called her, “Sis.”
Rick, who started hanging around the jobsite when he was 8 years old, heard his father say, “If it ain’t right, tear it down and do it again.”
“There were times if it was off half an inch on one end, we’d
do it again,” Rick said. He remembers working the summer of 1962 for a $350 drum set. When he was 16, he worked for a 1971 Ford Torino.
Dennis, who worked with his father for 46 years, recalls the adage, “If you’re not going to do it right, don’t do it at all.” But he also explained, “He was very patient. He was a good man.”
“I would love to know how many bricks he laid in 60-plus years — he could lay 700 brick a day,” Dennis said.
Rick noted that his father’s brick work can be seen throughout Johnson County including the Flinn & Maguire Funeral Home, The Grill Bar, Jefferson Street Lounge, the front of the Elks building in Franklin and house flues all around the county. Dennis added that they also bricked the first 65 homes in Greenwood Village South, in addition to Pebble Hills in Center Grove and Paris Estates in Franklin.
“Dad especially loved laying brick for homes,” Dennis said.
Debby remembers lessons of a daily ritual.
“When we were little, Dad and Grandpa Charlie Drake would come home from laying brick every night, pull into the driveway and see all four of us kids waiting to jump on the old ‘64 green Dodge stake-bed with gates on the sides,” she said. “With Dad driving and Grandpa Charlie on the passenger side, Rick, Teresa, Dennis and I would jump and hang on to ride to the barn. It was a daily ritual: at 4:30, we would be waiting at the end of the driveway.”
She added, “I looked forward to that ride everyday as a child and the legacy of riding to the barn has lived on through our children — we would wait at the end of the driveway with our kids to ride to the barn on the big green truck with Grandpa Jim and Grandpa Charlie Drake.”
As Rev. Roger Gifford expressed at Jim Drake’s funeral:
Remember the 1951 Whiteland High School class president
Remember him voted as most popular boy in his class of four.
Remember how he love dancing — especially with wife Rosie.
Remember the second-generation brick mason.
Remember him through his four children and their families.
Remember the fisherman who liked to catch panfish.
Remember his love of reading, especially western Zane Grey books.
Celebrate his life.
Remember his smile.
Remember his whistle — on the job and at home.
And most of all, remember his love.
Janet Hommel Mangas grew up on the east side of Greenwood. The Center Grove area resident and her husband are the parents of three daughters. Send comments to [email protected].
