BillW –

I haven’t logged on here in a while. To be honest, after the first inquiry and the response with the market value of a item such as this… BillW… my mind was right there where you were at, but I don’t think I could have put my thoughts in words to relay my feelings about it so precisely. Even if it was worth a million, a small part of me would have put up serious protest in selling this, this…. essentially a piece of history. Not only my family’s history, but a history of Merc motors, all those who, probably have long since passed who spent hours of labor, and maybe even a little bit of love working to manufacture these motors, maybe just to put food on the table for their family in a post – war time economy, or maybe, just because they just loved the idea of putting a little part of themselves into something that may run for months, or years. Whoever they were or are, and wherever they are now, I hope they will find some peace and comfort knowing that the hours they put into these engines have, in a lot of cases, provided decades and decades, and generation upon generation of families fun… entertainment, and even probably an essential lively hood for themselves and for their children. Countless fathers…. and countless sons, both have smiled and giggled in the adventures of boating and fishing in the "deep" waters of their local fishing holes, looking for the elusive big one, but always satisfied with the ones that filled up their buckets at the end of the fishing day, and filled the dinner table that night.

Rest assured…. this motor, the work its already done, and the work, that it may still do…. will not be in vain, and won’t be forgotten… For now, the motor has been mounted in my late fathers workshop, on a wall, I guess I would call, a wall of memories and history, and a wall of questions. The wall, with this motor contains many other workshop items, axes, tools, hand operated drills, and on and on and on. Some of them, I know where they’ve come from, others…. I have no clue, but until I can find photos or proof of where it’s been, I let the imagination fill in the blanks.

The stories and the history behind these items…. I couldn’t agree more, 100 bucks…. 500 bucks… even a 1000 bucks… I couldn’t see departing with this or any of these family heirlooms.

I haven’t had a chance to work on getting this up and running yet. I figured I’m gonna give the old girl a couple more months to rest. Then, she’s gonna come down from that wall, and with my hands, and probably a little help from some others… We’re gonna get her running, and let her start to PRRRR….. and then, maybe if we listen closely to that PRRRR, and probably some spittin’ and sputterin’, maybe we’ll just get to hear 1 or 2 of the stories she may want to tell….

Thanks again all for the input, the thoughts. and especially BillW and CajunCook – sometimes the biggest treasures are found in the smallest of places.

Regards,
Matt R

BillW wrote:You know, even at $120, that’s the cost of taking your wife to dinner on Valentine’s Day. It’s not really a huge sum of money, in the grand scheme of things. The true "value" of these things is not found in the money but in the heart and soul, when you work on it and it comes back to life, just like it was 1946 all over again. I think you should keep it and get it to run, if you are already small-engine inclined. They actually run pretty decent.

I like your comment BillW!!

Cheers,

Cajuncook