About Oakley WoodWorks

When I was a kid you did two things with your family every Sunday, you went to church and you visited your grandparents. There were no exceptions or excuses allowed and for the most part my sisters and I enjoyed the experience and even looked forward to Sundays.

​

In my case both my grandparents lived in Oakley on 33rd street three houses apart on opposite sides of the street. We would go to my Dad's  parents for lunch and then on to my mom's parents for dinner. My grandpa Grundhoefer could fix anything. He repaired tv's, air conditioners, and even built his own amateur radio equipment. When I was in grade school, we built balsa wood planes from coupons he got from Chex cereal boxes. I'm not sure if grandpa even liked the cereal but I had a whole fleet of planes.  Later in life he lost most of his eye sight but this didn't deter him, he built an amplifier for his radio equipment. I separated the electrical pieces into cup cake pans and made really large cards he could see with a magnifying glass. It took him months but it worked perfectly and I learned to never complain just figure it out!

​

Later in the afternoon, we would take the big walk across the street to my grandma Dunn's house to eat supper. My grandma was a fabulous country cook who hardly followed a recipe and could also make anything. When my grandfather was in World War II he would send parachutes home and my grandma would make clothes from the chutes. She could cross stitch, needle point, crochet, or whatever you needed her to make. I wish I would of learned some of these skills from my grandma but being the grandson, about the only thing she would let me do it is hold the yarn that was wrapped around my hands so she could keep an eye on me. Grandma figured if she kept me busy I wouldn't get into trouble. It worked most of the time.

 

So why did I name my company Oakley WoodWorks? There couldn't be any other name! I use the skills I learned from my grandparents and even some tools from my great grand parents in my shop. I want to make unique products that would make my grandparents and parents proud.

​

​