| |
| | UMass Magazine alum Norm Abram New Yankee Workshop |
 | | Abram had a predilection for engineering rooted, he says, in a boy's fascination with building things, with cars, with jet engines, and with science fiction stories especially the Tom Swift series. |
 | | Having had a taste of being his own boss, Abram was reluctant to return to being one of many tradesmen on a job site, even a televised job site; he acquiesced, he says, only because 1979 was a down year in the construction industry. |
 | | Today, Abram is more a host than a carpenter on This Old House, taking on special projects a "media room," what used to be called a "TV den," in one recent series, for example rather than serving as the main hammerer. |
| www.umass.edu /umassmag/archives/1998/spring_98/spg98_f_norm.html (2049 words) |
|