Joe's Drawers

According to The Judge, who has lived his whole life in Oakwood, Joe Koevnig was a bit of a neighborhood legend in his day. He had a large garage which had a shop with a wood stove and an ice box. The shop was where the men hung out - smoking, drinking and playing cards, especially during snowstorms. As far as I know he didn't call it a growlery, but we all know a growlery when we see it, don't we?

The garage and house were razed a year ago. Before the wrecking ball took it out I grabbed what I could of Joe, some old pens, a few beat up old shop drawers and I took them down to The Growlery. For a year the drawers were stacked loose in my bench. If I wanted to get at something in a bottom drawer I had to remove two drawers to get at it. After a while the charm of that wore thin. It didn't seem ... efficient. Last week I made a couple of small cabinets to insert into my bench. Amazing, the drawers, the refrigerator, fit as if they were made for it. All I had to do was make the cabinet sides out of thin plywood. That worked so well I made three more drawers myself, trying to replicate Joe's proven construction methods, one long one underneath and a couple more on the left side. I considered painting Joe's drawers, I finally decided they wouldn't be improved and the varied colors went well with the Sioux Chief's bonnet.

From left: garden tools in the bottom, non-bike tools and "stuff" in second drawer, cardboard box for empty beer cans and bottles. The Chief is a refrigerator for craft beer, bottled water and Coke - no lite beer, no diet soda. You want low-calorie? I got water. The large brown wooden box/drawer is a case of beer in waiting. The rest of the drawers are full of miscellaneous bicycle paraphernalia. The far right is a machinist tool box resting on a castered cabinet.

Three Galmozzis. The one on the right wall is the 1984 I publicly swore I wouldn't buy. I haven't done anything with it yet, but it gives me pleasure looking at the three bikes, observing the evolution of bicycle construction and components. Just today I realized the "new" bike is still 30 years old and would be considered totally obsolete and quaint by most of today's riders.