And they’re off ... Potter’s wooden horse racing games prove to be popular

Potter, an International Falls resident, has made more than 300 copies of a “horse racing” game. The game combines a board, dice and playing cards in a betting game of chance.

In his home wood shop, Potter creates the personalized wooden board for each order he receives. He places wooden pegs in each of the game’s 11 pre-manufactured horse figurines. And he prints and laminates a personalized game rules sheet.

Eight of his games traveled to Minneapolis this week, including one that was donated to a veterans hospital there.

A local Falls resident visiting the veterans hospital delivered the games.

“I hope they enjoy it,” Potter said of the veterans.

Veterans are special to Potter because six of his brothers were in the military, prompting him to donate one of the games.

“When I graduated from high school, I signed up for the Marines. I wanted to be a Marine because my brothers were Army, Air Force, Navy but nobody was in the Marines so I wanted to be a Marine,” Potter explained.

“I come home and I told my mother (Edith Potter) ... they had them career days in high school and that’s where I signed up. I told her I had signed up for the Marines and she broke down. She started crying and she said she’d given up six of her sons to the service and she didn’t want me to go. So I didn’t, but you know it always had a special spot in my heart.”

He said that most of the orders for his games have been through word of mouth, and explains that this order came because the Veterans Affairs hospital employee who ordered the other seven games knows his niece.

But these are certainly not the first of his games to make their way out of the Borderland area. Many of his games have to be shipped or hand-delivered to those living in other parts. Games have gone all across the country, he said, noting he doesn’t know an area where they have not been sent.

The games take about four hours over two days to complete. Games sell for $45, which Potter notes mainly covers material costs and generates little profit for him. Shipping costs are extra.

“I make it as easy as I can,” he said, noting that he has different jigs to drill into the horses and a template for where to drill into the game board. He has been making the games for about 10 years.

“I just started making ‘em and they started selling and I just kept going,” Potter said. “Last couple of years there’s just been a call on them. The word of mouth got out.”

The wood work is just a hobby for the retired pipe fitter and welder. Potter worked for Boise Inc. for 44 years until he retired four years ago. Since that time, the former metal worker switched mediums.

“I just got tired of metal work — welding and burning and cutting — and I just decided to do something different so I got back into wood working. ... I decided wood would be easier,” he joked.

To that end, Potter said that he is a jack of all trades, master of none. He has even tried his hand at art work, which can be seen displayed in his wood shop in the form of a saw, hand-painted with images of his ice house, hunting shack and house boat.

He makes all sorts of wood projects, including cabinets, clocks, hanging baskets, dog statues, back scratchers, and countless other wooden objects.

Potter said that he first got interested in wood working during the seventh and eighth grade at Park Rapids High School in Park Rapids. Hanging in his wood shop is a yellowing certificate of merit for showing a project in the Northern Minnesota Student Craftsman’s Fair from 1957.

He doesn’t remember the project that earned him the recognition; but years later the lessons returned as he relearned the skill through books, patterns and ideas from friends.

Many of the finished pieces in his wood shop are ideas from others. For example, he said he got the pattern for a “poopin’ moose” from a co-worker at Boise who had one. He photocopied the candy dispenser in the shape of a moose from all angles and replicated it at home using the copies as patterns. Other ideas, such as a clock in the shape of a giant wrist watch, have come from fellow wood workers sharing their ideas.

Still hanging in the doorway to his wood shop is the first project he made when he converted the shop: a clock with the helmets of several NFL football teams. That, he said, is not for sale.

He said he was also introduced to wood working on a larger scale through his father, John Potter, who, during high school, he watched (and sometimes helped) build lake cabins.

“Most of the time I had to sweep the floors,” he said.

That experience also taught him a healthy respect for the tools of the trade.

One particularly vivid memory for Potter was watching one of the men working with his father cut his hand off with a saw. Potter pointed to a similar saw in his own wood shop.

So there is no horsing around for Potter when it comes to safety and respect for the tools.

“Safety is my No. 1 project. I get a lot of company and if they’re here I won’t start a saw because you gotta concentrate on your cutting. You can’t be talking, that’s how accidents happen.”

Instead, while visiting with guests, Potter prefers to spend the time in his “thinking chair” at the end of a long work table. He said that he has spent many hours on that stool through the years.

The retiree generally spends about six hours each day in his shop, he said. But, he explained, when nothing is on television at night, he sometimes returns to the shop, working well into the night. He rarely misses a day, he said, and likens the hobby to the time most people spend at a full-time job.

But Potter also spends time at other hobbies, including hunting and fishing. Hanging along the walls of the converted pole barn that serves as his wood shop are dozens of mounted deer antlers that he, his children and grandchildren have harvested through the years.

And he said his wife Judy helps with the wood projects as well.

“She checks all of my work. She’s my quality-control person. She does all of my book work, too. She’s always overseeing me. She’s part of it, too. She’s good at it. And I like it because she comes out and walks through and looks at my work and if there’s something wrong, she tells me. If I don’t spray enough or .... I left a line off the other day ... she came out and told me ‘That one game out there don’t got a line on it.’ ... She keeps me honest.”

The Potters will celebrate 47 years of marriage in April.

“We know each other pretty well.”

Several generations of Potter’s family enjoy playing the horse game. During a recent visit to a niece on the West Coast, he said the family played the game every night after dinner.

“This is for kids, grandkids. You can play for pennies or you don’t have to play for anything. It’s whatever you want to play for,” he said. “It teaches the little guys, if you play for pennies, it teaches them how to count. If you have all adults, you can raise the ante up. It’s a fun game, it’s a family game.”

Potter seems to have found a hobby that not only fills his days, but entertains his family and those who order one of the personalized creations.