Monday, April 20, 2009

To Save a City...the man cave...

'Can I check your tires ma'am...'. a step back in time the minute you walk in through the door of this old 'filling station'...remember when they called them that...you are instantly transformed when the smells of old oil and car parts wafts through your senses...oh my God..it smells like my Dad's basement and my Grandpa's machine shed at the cottage...how cool is this...


This is Bill and Kathy, the crazy pair of down home folk that are trying to save a community single handed. Buying and restoring many an old building in their lil' burg, these two can be seen happily wondering the streets, visiting from shop to shop...there are no strangers in their little world. Bill loves to restore old structures, so the floods last year have been a setback, but undaunted he plods on doing what one does to save the history of a wonderful old city.


This is the level the Cedar River rose to in the ol' garage...I lived through the flood of '93, having 18 inches of water in my yard all summer, 6 inches from spilling into my home. You don't know the sorrow and pain of flood till you've lived it. What it does to your trees and flowers, starved without oxygen for so long, the effects are long term indeed...the sounds of heavy rains still bothers me today.

remember the old candy bar dispensers...yup, they still have the original bars in them, how cool is that...

sunglasses anyone...and spark plugs and car parts...

Fix yer' flat fer a dollar...

Bill also restores old vehicles in his spare time...this go getter is a hoot, as is Kathy, who has the cutest shop ever, but that's a whole other post, as this master gardener prepares her gardens for the spring season.

signs and more signs...

What Bill has achieved in this mechanics wonderland, will boggle your mind...a man possessed in the play land of boys and their toys...ahhhh, I love the smell of gasoline in the morning...kudos kids...this is what makes America great...hard working down home folks, with a pride in the community and the neighbors around them...can't wait to come back and visit...see ya soon!