COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) - A lot of wind chimes make a pleasant sound as the wind passes through them, but most don’t have the originality of those made by Larry Jones of Council Bluffs.
Jones started making them as a hobby a few years ago after retiring in 2010 from his 46-year career as an auto mechanic.
“I just needed something to do,” he told the Daily Nonpareil of Council Bluffs (https://bit.ly/1gVDsWl ). “I don’t really like just sitting around and doing nothing. I’ve sold quite a few.”
Jones credits his urge to tinker to his father.
“He was a body man for years, and he was always tinkering,” he said.
Jones builds a theme into each set of wind chimes using figurines, models, toys and other small objects. Some have solar lights to highlight their features.
“I kind of make a subject, and I try to match the parts,” he said. “I go to thrift shops and different places like that - yard sales, when they have them in the summer. You really have to look around to find the stuff you need.”
Past themes have included birds, dogs, patriotism, frogs, treehouses, angels, Mickey Mouse and many others.
“I have a lot of people who’d like to have eagles,” Jones said.
He has made a few with eagles and donated one to the Eagles Club at 1530 Ave. F, where he has been a member for more than 20 years. Like some of his other creations, that one was built for indoor display, rather than outdoor use.
To make the chimes themselves, Jones uses wood, electrical conduit, cotton string and small curtain chains. He buys 5/16-inch to 5/8-inch conduit in 10-foot pieces and cuts it to lengths of 8 to 13 inches and drills holes for the string.
“I just use a Skilsaw and sander and then a pipe cutter to cut the pipes,” he said. “I clean them up so there’s no rough edges.”
Jones grew up in Council Bluffs and got his first job at Katelman when he was 13. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1963 and served in the U.S. Army in 1968-69.
“When I was in the service, I needed the carburetor overhauled on my car, and I just didn’t have the money,” he said. “So I got a kit and took it all apart and put it all back together, and it worked.
“When I got out of the service, I could have gone into railroads or cars,” Jones said.
His father had worked on cars, and his father-in-law worked at Illinois Central Railroad, he said. But cars were already in his blood. He went to trade school in Omaha and got a job at Rasmussen Buick-GMC on West Broadway when he finished. Following that, he worked at Bob’s Towing for many years.
“I have done about everything, from engine overhauls to transmission overhauls to electrical,” he said.
Jones and his wife, Nancy, have two sons, one daughter and four grandchildren.
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