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Unidentified Object

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Husband cleaned the garage and workbench yesterday and found this:

We don’t know what it is.  It must have belonged to my father, since neither if us remember buying it.  We inherited my father’s collection of tools and gadgets acquired over his very long life.  He loved picking up this and that,  just in case he might need them. We have several hundred drill bits, for example, not to mention many socket wrench sets.

I suppose it could be a tripod of some sort, but dad sold his camera decades ago.  I think it looks so funny. I half expect it to come to life and run across the garage. I am not even sure which end of it goes up.

Any idea what this unidentified object is? When have you found something in your house you couldn’t remember buying or couldn’t identify? What does your tool and gadget collection look like?

33 thoughts on “Unidentified Object”

    1. Ok, but my dad didn’t have a camera. I wonder if he thought he could attach a light to it for working on things in the garage.

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    3. You beat me to it, Steve. I knew what it was, too. If it’s a heavy-duty gorilla pod, one that can hold a full-size DSLR, you’ve got a treasure there (IMO).

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        1. Looking at the one on amazon, it looks like it’s for lightweight cameras and phones. Don’t need that, but maybe another baboon would use it!

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  5. OT I lost a dear friend Saturday. We had not seen him for a few years because he and his dear wife had slowed down, as had we. He was 96. A few of you might feel a connection to him. He was the naturalist at Gooseberry Park from about 1955 to 1990. If had the will I would write a blog about him.

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    2. Sorry for your loss, Northshorer. I’ll bet I talked to that naturalist once or twice over the years. Coincidentally, my sister-in-law was a naturalist at Gooseberry back in the early ’80s. I’ll bet she knew him. I always admired what fonts of knowledge the naturalists had and how eager they were to share it with all.

      Chris in Owatonna

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  6. I’ve found kitchen thingies at the bottom of the utensil drawer that were questionable – one was a square of thin white plastic with a space on one edge for your fingers to fit through. I finally realized it is good for scraping stuff off any flat surface (counter) after you’ve made a mess.

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  8. Hi–
    I used to have a flashlight that had that kinda twisty bottom too it. It was useful for wrapping around things to give me light where I needed it. I’m sure I used it once or twice for its intended purpose.

    My dad was so good at identifying things. I’d pull a twisted piece of steel out of the ground and knock the dirt off it and he’d say “Oh, that’s from the ’38 2 row cultivator we had. I hit a rock about here and lost that piece and always wondered where it went.”
    And as I’ve gotten older I can kinda get how he was able to do that. There are usually clues to pieces that give me an idea. Course I won’t put him past him that he was completely making things up.

    Renee, that things is a clamp for soft items. We had one on an ’82 baler. (I remember getting it when I got out of high school that year). It was used at the back to hold slices of hay while you tied new strings on. I remember going through a waterway after a heavy rain and there was quite a bump and I broke the hitch on the wagon but lost the soft clamp too. Never did find ours.

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    1. I used to try to guess those, and it was hard. But when Roger Cook introduced the mystery object, it always was a gardening aid. If it was Richard Trethewey, it was a plumber’s thingie. When Tommie introduced the object, it was a plumber’s tool.

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      1. Tommie had a carpenter tool that I actually went out and purchased. Trying it at home first and if I like it, I’ll buy one for my college toolbelt and one for a couple friends of mine.
        A speed square holder for your belt.
        Haven’t used it enough at home yet to know for sure…

        https://tinyurl.com/y9crrhlq

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  10. I have many unidentified things. Many are kitchen or craft gadgets that have lost their intended purpose in life. Then there’s that collection of power cords and adapters that once had a function, now forgotten. They languish.

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