No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
Twenty-five years ago I agreed to put a stained glass window into the proposed Visitor Center the Chamber of Commerce was planning to build at the strategic Y where traffic north separated traffic south for most everyone coming onto the island. I guess I figured some small panel in a doorway sidelight maybe, nothing to write home about, just a small donation. When I sat with the architect, the original design was basically a box with a shed roof and when he asked me what I might consider doing for glass, I drew in a quarter moon over the door. He shook his head in confusion and I said it looks like an outhouse, why not pop in the iconic quarter moon insignia.
Yeah, I wonder too why I seem to never get along with architects. He said give me a minute and walked back to his drawing table, then came out a few of those minutes later with a sketch of what would become the Visitor Center, tall box with a curved roof and a giant X metal framework in the entire front, fifteen feet high by twelve wide. And so I volunteered to do the entire front, a dramatic piece for the highway traffic. For the first weekends of construction I offered my help, after all, I had built my own house and I was full of piss and vinegar, but after the initial structure was up, the contractor who’d volunteered his time and his crew told us he had to get back to his day job. And so I became the de facto project manager.
It took me from spring into late fall to complete the Center and its sculpture park. Lots of politics, fights with the Chamber folks, arguments with my artist buddies, begging for donations, all that fun stuff … but we did it, we built an Art Park and a Visitor Center. And we ended up with 3 and a half acres behind it for extending the Sculpture Park, what is now Freedom Park. The Chamber, about five years ago, decided to vacate the building and rent it to a local artist who promptly stuck huge posters of comical animal asses on the front and covered the artwork of our most well-known artist with a caricature of himself. You bet I was annoyed.
A month or more ago the folks from Freedom Park who now own the property in front asked if I could repair the damage to the original glass mural. I took a look and told them the panels were almost all shot with pellet guns, thrown bottles and lawnmower rocks, but if they were serious about rehabbing the building and park, I’d give them a new mural, new design, all gratis. The tenant wasn’t happy about being asked to vacate for a few weeks while all this upgrade took place and he ultimately took his butt banners and his posters and went home . Adios, amigo.
Fast forward to two days ago. Grant Shaw, the hombre spearheading all this upgrade, the guy who scraped and primed and painted the metal front, the spark plug for what will be a complete refurbishing of the building and the landscape, Grant hauled in ladders and I hauled in ten panels of new glass. Took us all day and had to recruit a couple of unsuspecting volunteers from the playground behind to help us hoist the 4×5 foot upper panel to the board we’d run through two ladders where we stood 12 feet up, but we got it done. You think it didn’t bring back memories from 25 years ago, you’d be dead wrong. You think I’m not worried that something similar to the past fiasco would happen down the road, yeah, same as the above. You think I’m not happy to see a new bunch of volunteers helping put this corner back together, maybe better, well, think again. For awhile I feel about 25 years younger, a little sore from the installation but once again proud of what a few people can accomplish. And yeah, I know, most folks won’t notice. But I’m used to that.
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Tags: New Glass for Old Wine, New Glass in Old Bottles, Terry's Corner Upgrade