The Soldier’s Second Act | Sawdust & Soda Cans Story (Chapter 4)

The Soldier’s Second Act

by the makers behind Sawdust & Soda Cans

Some people retire and slow down.
Others just start building something new.

Chapter 4 of 9

 

Long before the first soda can was cut open, Darren had spent nearly eighteen years in the United States Army.

Seventeen and three-quarter years, to be exact.

Long enough to learn discipline.
Long enough to understand durability.
Long enough to know that tools and equipment either work… or they don’t.

Eventually the Army medically retired him.

Retirement is a strange word for someone used to working with purpose.

Some people are meant to make things.

So Darren found a new mission.

Wood.

Real wood.

Not the hollow pressboard furniture that arrives in a cardboard box with instructions written by someone who has clearly never assembled it.

Real wood has personality.

Grain.
Weight.
Strength.

With chisels, saws, routers, planers, and whatever other tool the job demanded, Darren began making things the old way.

Solid.

Functional.

Built to last longer than the packaging they were sold in.

Eventually those pieces found their way to the same place Bridgit’s aluminum creations did.

A small kiosk in a mall food court in Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

It wasn’t glamorous.

But it turned out to be the perfect place to start something new.

Over the next several weeks we’ll be sharing the full origin story of Sawdust & Soda Cans here on the blog.

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