A creative hobby

By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LOWELLVILLE -- Need a tacks shelter?
Bill Augustine gives them away.
He gives a lot of other stuff away too, and most of it gives his recipients a good laugh.
The tiny tacks shelters that Augustine builds look much like a toothpick-holder-sized bus shelter with just enough room on the bench for two thumb tacks. A tiny roof positioned an inch or so above the sharp tack tips provides the shelter.
Augustine chuckles as he lifts up a little stool hidden beneath a table in his garage.
"This is my milking stool," he said, turning it over so that the udders that are positioned under the seat much like real udders are positioned under a cow are in plain view.
On a nearby shelf, dozens of items made from scrap oak provide lots of chuckles. A toilet paper holder lifts open just like the seat on a toilet.
An array of duck-shaped pencil holders, similar to one Augustine gave to Mayor Jim Iudiciani, remind recipients "not to become a lame duck," the 77-year-old retired railroad crane operator said, laughing.
His unusual hobby
A seashell with glued-on googly eyes curves into a toothy smile and is mounted on a wooden base that reads: "Look, Mom. No cavities."
"I gave these to two dentists," Augustine said.
Augustine started making things -- odd things, funny things, useful things like walking sticks, canes and table lamps -- from odds and ends about 60 years ago.
When he retired from Sharon Steel almost 20 years ago, he started doing more and more in his workshop, which occupies a rear corner in his garage.
A wooden sign that reads, "My little workshop," adorns the wall. It was a hand-made gift from Augustine's grandson, Michael Storti, who also likes to make things. When he was younger, Augustine said his grandson, who is now in his 30s, used to help him in the workshop.
Today, Storti lives in Florida where he works as an engineer. He's also a pilot, Augustine said, holding up the silhouette of an airplane that he cut from a large slab of oak. "I sent him one of these and he has it in front of his house with his house number," Augustine said.
Hundreds of Augustine's creations adorn the walls and shelves throughout his garage.
Decoupage plaques feature advertisements, news clippings, even antique sales tax receipts.
One, featuring President Carter on a commemorative plate, is adorned with unshelled peanuts. Another features Idora Park's carousel before it was sold at auction.
Presidents Clinton and Kennedy face off on another, and New York's Twin Towers commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States on yet another.
Gift for speaker
Motioning to a toy-sized rocking horse, Augustine said, "I gave one of these to former Congressman Jim Traficant. He was our Memorial Day speaker one year and they forgot to get him something. So, they came up here and asked me what I had that they could give him, and I knew he liked horses."
Augustine also gave Traficant a plaque featuring sales tax receipts, the kind consumers used to donate to churches and other charitable organizations.
"He had that hanging in his office," Augustine said. "I used to see it on TV."
Other novelties in Augustine's garage are lamps fashioned from antique blow torches and a whistle from a steam engine, knickknacks and plaques featuring hood ornaments from various automobiles -- a couple feature lights and lenses from cars from 1923, twisted walking sticks made from the knurled branches of a corkscrew willow -- some adorned with fluorescent orange golf balls -- and canes made from pieces of a wooden railing.
Despite the hundreds of items in Augustine's neat-as-pin garage, which actually looks more like the showroom of a specialty shop, he said what he is best known for are his "Augie's Doggies."
Augie's Doggies are tasty deep-fried morsels of pepperoni and hot pepper cheese wrapped in bite-sized pieces of bread dough. He makes them on a stove that sits next to his workshop.
Augie's Doggies are so popular, Augustine said, that almost everyone in Lowellville knows of them and he routinely shares them with village employees.
Like the items he crafts from scrap wood and other cast-off items, Augustine doesn't charge for Augie's Doggies.
kubik@vindy.com