I recall, in the mid-60’s, my parents agreed to tear down a two story, 24 unit apartment complex. It was a long project taking four months to complete. My Dad would work his full time job and then evenings and weekends were fully committed to tearing down the structure by hand. No heavy equipment. Hand tools and extension ladders were it. I was, of course, recruited to help.

My parents figured they would salvage as much of the materials as possible to resell them. So every salvageable board, pipe, wiring and bricks were saved and hauled home in the back of two 1949 Buick Roadmaster’s that had the rear seats removed. Day after day all this stuff was transported to my parents back yard.

My duties, beyond muscling the materials into and out of the car and carrying them to the back yard, were removing all nails from every board and stacking brick. I was tasked with using a hatchet to skim each brick clean of the mortar. My parents would sell each brick at 2¢. When I see a stack of bricks today, I recall my very sore hands as a youth.

The bricks, below, were near an old farm house built in the 1880’s. Someone started the salvage effort at one point.

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Making Bricks in the Old Days

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More How To’s On Brick Making

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