Woodworking warms governor's heart

(Every day until Christmas, The News & Observer will publish the holiday memories of some of the Triangle's recognizable residents. Mike Easley, North Carolina's two-term governor, recalls a gift-giving tradition in his family that has been passed down from generation to generation.)

Gov. Mike Easley grew up with the family tradition of giving Christmas gifts that were made with one's own hands.

For the Easley men, that has meant woodworking.

"When you make something yourself and give it to somebody," Easley said, "you are giving a big part of yourself, and it's there forever."

Easley shares an old photograph he thinks was taken in 1956, when he was 6 years old. He's posing with a cherry secretary -- a type of desk -- that his father, Henry Alexander Easley Jr., a Rocky Mount tobacco warehouseman, had made him for Christmas. His parents had young Mike dress up as a lawyer, which he said he did only reluctantly.

He and his brother Sandy "helped" their father make the secretary. "He let us pretend we were helping," Easley said. "We sanded the same piece of board for six weeks."

The secretary is still a prized Easley family possession.

By 1987, when he was a district attorney living in Southport, Easley was making a pencil-post bed for his 2-year-old son, Michael. At the moment future first lady Mary Easley took a snapshot of the scene, young Michael had just stabbed his father with a chisel, and the blood is about to start spurting.

His son had wanted a "big-boy bed." And although he had helped with the post, he hadn't realized that it was part of a larger bed. On Christmas morning, he found his new bed sitting next to the fireplace, having been delivered by Santa Claus.

"He came down and jumped up and down, shouting 'Big-boy bed,' " Easley said. "He still uses it."

The governor's son has taken up woodworking, making it likely the Easley tradition will be passed down. This year, the governor and his son, a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, are making maple tables together for Christmas.

Homemade gifts, Easley said, are so much more rewarding for both the giver and the recipient than something bought with a check or plastic.

"It's something you can do together at Christmas," Easley said. "It's just a lot of fun when you are a little kid to do something grown-up with your dad and feel like you're a man rather than a little kid. When you are the father, it's fun to see your son take an interest and be enthralled about woodwork."