The Shop

[vakkotaur]

The place on Liberty street didn't have all that much room for more than just living, even with using the garage as something other than a place to store a car. So, wanting more room to work, arrangements were made with relatives...

Some distant uncle or such had an acre of land east of town, on highway G, he was willing to part with for not just too much money. The folks managed to buy the property, which was completely undeveloped, and get all the needed papers signed before the seller's trip "up north" one weekend. I don't know if that trip was to Canada or northern Wisconsin or Michigan. But I do know that it was good, for us, that all the papers where taken care of before he left since he never came back. Nobody knows what exactly happened. Last I heard he just disappeared.

A culvert was put into place so the place could be driven onto, and some gravel put down for a driveway. Then a Menard pole building was put up. That one of my grandfathers worked for Menard's and had some control over things helped considerably. This was in the early 1970s, before Menard's left the pole building business that was their start. I still recall that a couple of holes drilled for the poles hit rock and the concrete disks that would have been dropped down the holes weren't used. I think the concrete slab was poured after the building was up, but I'm not sure.

The place had two doors, one in front, and one near the rear on the side. At least I think it had both doors right off. The rear door might have been added later. It very pointedly did not have a garage door. My father didn't want to work on cars, which he saw as a big time sink for not much return, so to prevent that, he simply didn't allow for the possibility.

The place was tan metal with white corner trim. I recall my father wiring the place, and my seeing circuit breakers for the first time. Not that I had encountered fuses, but I was aware of them. The advantage of breakers was clear. There was a bank of three switches by the front door. These weren't the usual switches as I was used to seeing but the bigger flat rocker switch style. One was for inside lights, one was for the outside light (which was also controlled by an "electric eye" so it'd only be on when it was useful) and one switch was unused, figuring a use would turn up eventually. It's probably still unused.

I think there were styro sheets of insulation along the walls and the ceiling, but that also might have been added later. At first it really was rather primitive. It was just a concrete slab with a metal shell over it and electricity. Nothing else. But it was to be a private workshop so amenities weren't too pressing a concern. I'm not even sure if there was any heater at first. If there was, it was likely wasn't much and only used when really needed.

It was here that I first found out that I was going to have a sibling. I was probably 4 at the time and my mother felt a kick and commented on it, or at least that's what I remember. It was then explained that I'd have a little brother or sister, eventually.

I do recall Pa working on a small project or two there, early on. One was a sort of table or stand for a stereo or such. I'm not sure what happened to that, I don't recall seeing it later. Another was a helium-neon laser. That was in 1972, well before laser pointers. The power supply was portable and able to be run off the lighter outlet in a car. Think of all the fun that can be had with a laser pointer, but years before anyone knew what they were. We had it, at least until the laser tube leaked.

The laser and portable supply setup was finished around the time my sister was born. My father visited my mother in the hospital and then told her to watch out the window before he drove off. It was a somewhat foggy night so when he flipped the laser on and aimed it into the sky for a little while, the beam could be seen.

I also recall being in the shop when the power went out with a bit of a bang. The fuse or breaker on the pole by the road had popped. I'm not sure how it was communicated (no phone on site) but a power company truck came and tried to put things right - and it blew again. I'm not sure if they tried a few times, but eventually they changed the transformer as well. Eventually, not sure if before or after the transformer change, it was noticed that the problem wasn't up on the pole. It was the meter on the side of the building. The ground wire from the meter was run through a conduit. A long conduit that just reached the ground. In a northern climate, this isn't a good idea because of frost heave. The conduit had been forced up into the works of the meter and shorted things out. The conduit was cut shorter and the meter taken care of and all was well again.

I don't recall much else about the place as purely a workshop, though I do have other memories of the place. It turned out that we were quite lucky to have the place because we'd soon need it rather badly.