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In his spare time during the next few days, Brixey did make a wishing well. Utilizing an empty pound coffee can, some sticks, paint, cement, pretty rocks, and a few other odds and ends, he fashioned a miniature wishing well that really fulfilled his promise to make a prettier one.

And so, about four years ago, a hobby was born that has absorbed all the time that Brixey can spare from his duties as captain of the Sapulpa fire department.

Also an ardent fishing fan, Brixey jokingly says he does not let his job, hobby, or anything else interfere with his fishing trips. However, his friends have remarked that on returning from his frequent fishing trips to streams in eastern Oklahoma and in the Ozark Mountain section of Arkansas and Missouri, he brings home more pretty colored rocks than he does fish.

For living accommodations on these trips, Brixey has converted a commercial bus into a portable home, comprising a kitchen and sleeping quarters; and, believe it or not, a signal system arranged to which he ties the end of his trot-line so that a bite on the line will wake him at night and he can get the fish—but that is another story.

Probably the rocks used on Brixey's wishing wells provide the attraction that has made the sales of his product so satisfactory. Most of the novelties are covered with rocks from his own collection. However, often people have rocks that they have gathered as souvenirs that he fashions into the well for them. His most gratifying experience along this line was a well he made for a war veteran. He covered it with sea shells found by the veteran on the island of Saipan during the war.

ANOTHER UNUSUAL feature of Brixey's hobby was the means by which the market for his wishing wells was established. After making his first well and showing it to his fellow firemen at the fire station, he gave it to his wife and had no idea of ever making another. However, Harold Whitley, who operates a Sapulpa florist shop, saw the novelty in the Brixey home and he immediately ordered some of the wells for sale in his shop. After much coaxing, Brixey filled the order and has since marketed most of the wells he has time to make through florist shops in Sapulpa, Bristow, Okmulgee, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Most of the florists plant various kinds of flowers in the wells before they are placed on display for sale.

The price of the miniature wells wholesale in lots of a dozen is $18. When individuals buy only one well from Brixey, he charges $2 apiece. On wells made to order with special decorations, the price varies with the cost of materials and work involved.

Brixey thinks that he has a wishing well in every state in the union. Relatives of friends visiting in Sapulpa have bought them from him to take home. They have told their friends, and many strangers passing through Sapulpa find Brixey and buy one of his wishing wells.

Miniature wishing wells make an ideal decoration for the home, are appropriate for the sick-room, and make a suitable gift for almost any occasion. And Brixey's wells are so strongly constructed that they last indefinitely.

On order Brixey makes wishing wells of virtually any size. The price varies as to size and kind of decorations wanted. His largest well, which is used on lawns and stands about six feet high, usually sells for $35. It is a duplicate of the smaller novelty wishing wells and makes a perfect lawn decoration.

At the opening of Whitley's new florist shop in Sapulpa three years ago, the main attraction in his showroom was one of Brixey's lawn size wishing wells decorated with appropriate flowers and vines.

THE MATERIALS needed to make the novelty wishing wells are all easily obtainable and are not expensive.

One-pound coffee cans form the base for the well. Brixey's friends save them for him, and he has a standing offer to children in the neighborhood of a penny apiece for all the one-pound coffee cans they bring him. The cans must necessarily be clean and not rusty.

Apple crates are used to make the wooden parts of the wells. The thin sides are used to make the roofs of the wells, and the ends are ripped into pieces for the posts.

One-quarter-inch dowel pin stock is used to make the windlass shaft and crank. This can be bought in three-foot lengths from almost any lumber yard.

The buckets are turned on a wood lathe out of one-inch square pine sticks. The bail is made from scrap copper wire, and the rope is a short piece of cord.

Common cement and river sand form the base on which to stick the rocks around the well.

Now for the actual dimensions and construction of each piece used in making the wishing well. First, remove from the coffee can the narrow inner ring. That is all the preparation necessary for the can.

The posts are made from pieces sawed from the apple crate ends. Each post is 9¾ inches long, ¾ inch wide, and ½ inch thick. With a saw one end is slotted 3 inches deep to fit over the side of the coffee can. A ¼ inch hole is bored through each post 3 inches down from the top for mounting the windlass shaft. Remember to place the posts exactly opposite each other on the can before nailing.

Next the roof boards are sawed from the sides of the apple crates. This material is about ¼ inch thick. The roof boards are 7¾ inches long and 3¾ inches wide. The gable end pieces are triangular in shape with a base dimension of 4 inches and an altitude of 1½ inches, and are sawed from the same material as the roof boards.

To simulate an actual shingle roof, Brixey angle grooves the top of the roof boards in ¾-inch steps. Each tier of shingles is then marked off in ¾-inch spaces to represent individual shingles. At first he marked these off one at a time with a metal marker. This proved to be a slow and tedious task, and Mrs. Brixey had to help him to produce roof boards for his wishing wells.

Brixey soon realized that this task must be shortened so he made a heavy metal tool, with teeth ¾ inch wide and ¾ inch apart and the length of the roof boards, which he now uses to mark off the shingles. With one hammer stroke he marks off a full row of shingles and then moves the marker to the next row. By offsetting the marks on each row, this process makes a roof that is marked off like a real shingle roof.

The windlass is a 6-inch piece of the ¼-inch dowel pin stock, and the crank handle is a piece of the same material ¾ inch long. The crank is made from a small board 2 inches long, ¾ inch wide, and ¼ inch thick, with a ¼-inch hole near each end to receive the end of the windlass shaft and the crank handle.

Brixey makes the buckets from pine sticks 1 inch square. By turning these sticks in his lathe, a series of buckets about 1½ inches long are formed. He uses the back of a hack saw blade and burns three shallow grooves in each bucket to resemble metal hoops around the bucket. After removing the stick from the lathe, he saws the buckets apart. Bails are made from short pieces of copper wire bent into a semi-circle with each end offset about ¹/8 inch. These ends are pressed into the wood near the top of the bucket to hold it firmly. A piece of cord a few inches long is wound on the windlass and tied to the bucket to simulate a well rope.

Brixey makes the separate parts for the wishing wells in quantities and stacks them for assembly later. This eliminates many adjustments on his wood-working tools, thereby saving much time in the over-all construction of a large number of the wishing wells.

WITH THE posts nailed to the sides of the can, the roof boards and gable ends assembled and nailed to the top of the posts, the well is ready for cementing and the placing of the decorative rocks.

The cement mortar is mixed in a ratio of one part cement to two parts sand, which is finely screened before using. If available, a small amount of white glass sand is used with the river sand. Brixey selects the rocks he is going to use, and then adds a little cement coloring to the mortar to give the right background coloring for the rocks selected. This powdered cement coloring can be obtained in many colors from lumber yards.

The well framework is then placed on a drying board which is a scrap board about ten inches square. The cement mortar of proper consistency is then stuck around the coffee can to a thickness of about one inch. Then the rocks are imbedded into the mortar and the wishing well is left on the drying board until the cement is thoroughly dry.

Painting the wood parts and the inside of the can is next in order after the cement has dried thoroughly. Brixey uses a variety of colors to paint the wells, and a group of wells on display presents a colorful picture of contrasting rooftops. After the paint has dried the wishing well is ready for sale.

IN THE construction of the lawn size wishing wells, Brixey uses cedar posts about 3 inches in diameter and 6 feet long for the well posts. The knotty cedar helps give a rustic appearance to the finished well. The roof is made from standard cedar roofing shingles nailed onto sheeting boards the same as on a standard house top. The windlass shaft and crank handle is made from 1-inch dowel pin stock. The crank is made from a piece of cedar about 2 inches in diameter and 1 foot long with a hole in each end to receive the windlass shaft and the crank handle. A length of ½-inch manila rope and a homemade wooden bucket complete the upper parts of the lawn size wishing well.

With the upper part of the wishing well assembled, Brixey then forms the base out of expanded metal lath. This is the same material that is used in houses as a plaster base for walls, and can be purchased at lumber yards in sheets 27 inches wide and 96 inches long.

Out of the metal lath Brixey forms a cylinder with the diameter the same as the inside distance between the well posts at the base and a height of 27 inches or the same as the width of the lath material. This cylinder is firmly nailed to the inside of the well posts.

Another cylinder of the metal lath is formed with the diameter the same as the outside distance of the well posts. This cylinder is nailed firmly to the outside of the well posts. A circle of metal lath is cut the same diameter as the larger cylinder. This circle is placed under the two cylinders and fastened with small wire around the edges to both cylinders. A small strip of the metal lath is then wired to the top of the cylinders to finish the rim of the well base.

With the basic form finished, Brixey mixes the cement mortar in the usual manner and plasters the base on the inside and out. When the cement on the outside of the well has partially set, another layer of cement mortar is added, the rocks are imbedded, and the completed well is left to dry thoroughly.

FOR VARIETY Brixey makes some of the novelty wishing wells into miniature table lamps. He buys small screw sockets and cords at the dime stores. The lamp sockets are inverted and fastened with screws up under the well roof. One post is grooved on the inside, and a hole is bored through the post just above the top of the can rim. The lamp cord is then brought through this hole, fitted into the groove on the inside of the post, and attached to the lamp socket. By plugging it into an electrical appliance outlet, the wishing well becomes a decorative table lamp.

Brixey has achieved a better and more attractive wishing well. Floral salesmen have tried to get him to make them on a mass production basis, but he prefers to make what he can in his spare time and market them through his many friends among the florist shops.