Tom Laidlaw wastes no time when there’s a new skill to learn.
The 80-year-old retired electrician has always been a “do-it-yourself kind of guy,” he said. For a while, it was skateboards he fancied, and bookshelves, and a Benjamin Franklin chair that transforms from a chair into a stepladder. He’s self-taught, he said, researching new projects online, then diving in.
“I like to find patterns,” he said.
His latest obsession? Sundials. Visitors to his Vancouver Heights neighborhood house are greeted by a yard dotted with all types of the time-telling devices. They’re big, they’re small, there’s one made from a globe, another from a skateboard. The centerpiece of the display is an analemmatic sundial, where a person stands in the middle, hands over their heads, and their own shadow tells the time. A plumb bob, a weight with a pointed tip, dangles from a beam in the yard, allowing Laidlaw to time solar noon.
“There is an art to it,” he said. “It’s very ancient.”
A sign greets visitors to Laidlaw’s sundial garden, inviting them to knock on his door so he can explain the science behind each device. Winding wooden pathways lead from display to display, and laminated information sheets explain how each sundial works. Some use traditional columns, others use horizontal beams. One uses a combination of the two.
“It’s fun to watch him talk to people about it,” said Debra Brouhard, Laidlaw’s daughter and neighbor. Laidlaw’s also been a docent and a history re-enactor, she added.
