Pops and the horse barn

There once was a guy in the neighborhood who hung around the old barn quite a bit. I'll call him Cloyce just to give him a name.

One day Cloyce stopped by simply to chat, as was his wont. For whatever reason his 9 year old daughter was with him. For whatever reason he asked me Pops how old the Shop was, so Dad went into an abridged version of his standard tale of the Shop's origion. It was our drain snake shop, me Grandpa Joe's welding shop afore that and a mechanic's shop afore that. Afore all that, and Dad had gone back a around a hundred years by then, it was a horse barn. Cars had not quite caught on in early 1900s and many folks in the area still had a horse and buggy for getting around.

"A horse barn, eh?" Cloyce asked approvingly.

"That explains the smell," young Miss Cloyce opined with a pinched up nose. From the mouths of babes.

"Cute kid you got there Cloyce," said Pops with a wry laugh.