I reached for it today, to turn a screw in an awkward spot, and realized something: We go back at least 40 years together. That’s a good while to keep an everyday thing close by, or in your pocket, and not lose it down a storm drain or leave it in a bar. It’s a Craftsman four-size flat head screw tool, about the size of a Kennedy half-dollar. I’ve kept it on key chains and used it for all kinds of things — loosening an old screw or starting a new one in a tight spot, prying open paint cans, or just holding it between thumb and forefinger and rubbing it the way a Greek man I once knew rubbed a worry stone. It came with a set of screwdrivers I bought at Sears in the Hunt Valley Mall, back when I was a new homeowner. Sears, once the world’s biggest retailer, is just about gone; it went into bankruptcy five years ago, and only a few full-line stores remain. What I have here is a relic, and a still useful one.
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Dan Rodricks 
A lot of us carry around all-purpose pocket tools in case we get in a jamb, especially musicians in the “gig bag”. It might be interesting to put together a photo album of such tools.
Dick S.
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I keep my drum key handy.
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My Dad worked for Sears for 30 years!! Everything we had was from Sears, tools, appliances. He is passed on now, but I still have some of those tools! Thanks.
Kate Phelan
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I had my first eye exam at the Sears store at Harfor Road and North Avenue when I was in the fourth grade at Parkville School that reslted in my first glasses and a neighborhood nickname of “The Professor.” My parents bought everything out ot their massive catalog that even included entire prefabricated homes and my first two-wheeler, a Kenmore!
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I have a workshop full of Craftsman tools, some older than my marriage (nearly a half century), many I use nearly every day. The one piece of advice my sainted Father-in-law gave me was to buy Craftsman tools, they’re lifetime guaranteed. Of course he couldn’t foresee Sears going out of business, so I guess that was Sears’s lifetime, not mine.
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