I love history. I love the stuff of history. It's one thing to read about an event, but having a little something authentic from the event makes it all the more tasty. This works quite well in my position at the College... I'm surrounded by the flotsam & jetsam of the past 85 years... yearbooks, letter jackets, the odd medal or trophy. It's wonderful. I also think it's terribly cool to incorporate the historical into a modern setting which, a paragraph later, brings me to my point today...
Years ago, when I was old enough to think these things through, I decided I wanted the giant spray-booth lights out of my Grandfather's shop. These things were massive, 300 watt, blast-proof fixtures that were supposedly scavenged from an shut-down Alco Valve factory in St. Louis. I didn't know what I'd do with them, but they'd be cool wherever they showed up.
A couple of years ago the family did a massive clean out of Grandpa's shop in St. Louis. We all got bits and pieces of things that held significance to us... and there were the lights. In the back of my truck. On the way to a storage unit (because, at the time, we didn't have a house... we were out getting our passports stamped in exotic locales).
Once we moved into the Lee St. house, I knew exactly where the lights would go... although I think it was pretty confusing for Grandpa. "Son, that's 600 watts of light there. Why would you put them in your kitchen?"
Well, Grandpa, first, I replaced the 300w bulb with a 7w CFL.
And second, they're just so totally cool.
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