The mouths of babes

I love the old barn, even though it's old. And decrepit. And cold in the winter, and lots of other things. But it has something pretty cool: history. Even if that history can lead to a put down.

The Shop began its history as a horse barn more than 100 years ago. Most folk don't realize it, but at the end of World War I the car hadn't really taken over yet. As such, a lot of neighborhood households still had carriages, and carriages needed horses. So the old barn was built, well, as a horse barn for the locals. It went through several manifestations, as a mechanic shop which morphed into car detailing, then welding and welder rentals, and now my snake repair shop.

One day a customer was in to pick up a few things. Obviously not working but merely doing some running around, he had his nine year old daughter in tow. The customer, who I'll call Cloyce just to give him a name, asked about the Shop's origins. So I started into the tale, "Well, it began as a horse barn..."

The youngster wrinkled up her nose and said, in that honest way young kids talk, "That explains the smell."

Cute kid you got there, Cloyce.

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.