Lately, my mind is working in a random and cyclical manner I can only explain as similar to the TV commercials for the internet search service Bing. Stream of consciousness meets free association, or in my case, wheels- on the shelves of Lowe’s, have me thinking instead, of keys. Skate keys to be as precise as my wandering mind will allow, and my key collection.  Sure, wheels and roller-skates, see the connection now?

I gave up collecting keys some time ago, but not before I collected enough to warrant its collection designation. I put away my hodgepodge of skeleton keys, former house keys, a safe deposit key and my most prized key, my own skate key (yes, it is a rather old key!).

When I discovered that key collections, can now be found in the Pottery Barn catalog,

I wondered if it as rewarding to buy a collection of something, as it is to actually accumulate a collection. My keys have meaning, and I couldn’t abide being asked if I’d bought them from the Barn. I’ve had my skate key since the third grade.

Back to the wheels, which are now at Lowe’s, and a new addition to the shelves of big box madness, now I may have to abandon a favorite design device of mine too-wheels.

My first wheel fixation was that of a single wooden wheel, stuck solid on the bottom of an odd table leg I intended to use as a base for a counter top. The legs were not long enough for counter height, so I asked my favorite carpenter at the time, to extent each of four legs, one of which had the wheel, with plinth blocks at the top. Once extended by four inches give or take, the legs could stand below the counter. I insisted the wheel should stay-which made accurate measuring a problem for my favorite carpenter. But he was well aware of his place in my admiration of carpenters, so he endured.

That wheel, led to more wheels-wheels on table legs, chairs, and small dressers in kids rooms. As is always the case with such fixations, the most compelling use of wheels I ever designed, was also the most grandiose. When I designed an enormous kitchen island (eight feet by four feet), and specified the entire island and its legs should be finished with wheels, another carpenter thought he was doing business with the devil. All in all, it was a triumph in every way-the wheels soften the size of the massive island emotionally, exactly as I knew they would.

Anything at all, which can be wheeled around, makes whatever the thing is, appear portable, lighter in weight, and just plain fun. The very idea of wheeling around an 8’x4’ kitchen island was very avante-guard ten years ago, but now it seems as old school, as a key collection, or metal roller skates.

I’m not ready to give up the wheels though, because wheels always remind me of my roller-skates. I can still imagine the scratched toes of my cordovan Mary Jane shoes, from Buster Brown. Do you know the shoes? Is there still a Buster Brown shoe store? The toes of the shoes were punched through, like eyelet curtains, and I kept them buckled on the first hole. I couldn’t work the skate key very well, so I would scrunch my Buster Brown Mary Jane’s into the skates, which made my mother very angry.

There was a boy inside the shoe, and his dog too-Tige? Was that his name? Oh, and a song…

Does your shoe have a boy inside, what a funny place for a boy to hide, does your shoe have a dog their too, a boy and a dog and a foot in a shoe…..

I’ll leave the finale to those whose minds are equally boggled by hormones and age, or you could look it up on Bing!

Lately, my mind is working in a random and cyclical manner I can only explain as similar to the TV commercials for the internet search service Bing. Stream of consciousness meets free association, or in my case, wheels- on the shelves of Lowe’s, have me thinking instead, of keys. Skate keys to be as precise as my wandering mind will allow, and my key collection.  Sure, wheels and roller-skates, see the connection now?

I gave up collecting keys some time ago, but not before I collected enough to warrant its collection designation. I put away my hodgepodge of skeleton keys, former house keys, a safe deposit key and my most prized key, my own skate key (yes, it is a rather old key!).

When I discovered that key collections, can now be found in the Pottery Barn catalog,

I wondered if it as rewarding to buy a collection of something, as it is to actually accumulate a collection. My keys have meaning, and I couldn’t abide being asked if I’d bought them from the Barn. I’ve had my skate key since the third grade.

Back to the wheels, which are now at Lowe’s, and a new addition to the shelves of big box madness, now I may have to abandon a favorite design device of mine too-wheels.

My first wheel fixation was that of a single wooden wheel, stuck solid on the bottom of an odd table leg I intended to use as a base for a counter top. The legs were not long enough for counter height, so I asked my favorite carpenter at the time, to extent each of four legs, one of which had the wheel, with plinth blocks at the top. Once extended by four inches give or take, the legs could stand below the counter. I insisted the wheel should stay-which made accurate measuring a problem for my favorite carpenter. But he was well aware of his place in my admiration of carpenters, so he endured.

That wheel, led to more wheels-wheels on table legs, chairs, and small dressers in kids rooms. As is always the case with such fixations, the most compelling use of wheels I ever designed, was also the most grandiose. When I designed an enormous kitchen island (eight feet by four feet), and specified the entire island and its legs should be finished with wheels, another carpenter thought he was doing business with the devil. All in all, it was a triumph in every way-the wheels soften the size of the massive island emotionally, exactly as I knew they would.

Anything at all, which can be wheeled around, makes whatever the thing is, appear portable, lighter in weight, and just plain fun. The very idea of wheeling around an 8’x4’ kitchen island was very avante-guard ten years ago, but now it seems as old school, as a key collection, or metal roller skates.

I’m not ready to give up the wheels though, because wheels always remind me of my roller-skates. I can still imagine the scratched toes of my cordovan Mary Jane shoes, from Buster Brown. Do you know the shoes? Is there still a Buster Brown shoe store? The toes of the shoes were punched through, like eyelet curtains, and I kept them buckled on the first hole. I couldn’t work the skate key very well, so I would scrunch my Buster Brown Mary Jane’s into the skates, which made my mother very angry.

There was a boy inside the shoe, and his dog too-Tige? Was that his name? Oh, and a song…

Does your shoe have a boy inside, what a funny place for a boy to hide, does your shoe have a dog their too, a boy and a dog and a foot in a shoe…..

I’ll leave the finale to those whose minds are equally boggled by hormones and age, or you could look it up on Bing!

Lately, my mind is working in a random and cyclical manner I can only explain as similar to the TV commercials for the internet search service Bing. Stream of consciousness meets free association, or in my case, wheels- on the shelves of Lowe’s, have me thinking instead, of keys. Skate keys to be as precise as my wandering mind will allow, and my key collection.  Sure, wheels and roller-skates, see the connection now?

I gave up collecting keys some time ago, but not before I collected enough to warrant its collection designation. I put away my hodgepodge of skeleton keys, former house keys, a safe deposit key and my most prized key, my own skate key (yes, it is a rather old key!).

When I discovered that key collections, can now be found in the Pottery Barn catalog,

I wondered if it as rewarding to buy a collection of something, as it is to actually accumulate a collection. My keys have meaning, and I couldn’t abide being asked if I’d bought them from the Barn. I’ve had my skate key since the third grade.

Back to the wheels, which are now at Lowe’s, and a new addition to the shelves of big box madness, now I may have to abandon a favorite design device of mine too-wheels.

My first wheel fixation was that of a single wooden wheel, stuck solid on the bottom of an odd table leg I intended to use as a base for a counter top. The legs were not long enough for counter height, so I asked my favorite carpenter at the time, to extent each of four legs, one of which had the wheel, with plinth blocks at the top. Once extended by four inches give or take, the legs could stand below the counter. I insisted the wheel should stay-which made accurate measuring a problem for my favorite carpenter. But he was well aware of his place in my admiration of carpenters, so he endured.

That wheel, led to more wheels-wheels on table legs, chairs, and small dressers in kids rooms. As is always the case with such fixations, the most compelling use of wheels I ever designed, was also the most grandiose. When I designed an enormous kitchen island (eight feet by four feet), and specified the entire island and its legs should be finished with wheels, another carpenter thought he was doing business with the devil. All in all, it was a triumph in every way-the wheels soften the size of the massive island emotionally, exactly as I knew they would.

Anything at all, which can be wheeled around, makes whatever the thing is, appear portable, lighter in weight, and just plain fun. The very idea of wheeling around an 8’x4’ kitchen island was very avante-guard ten years ago, but now it seems as old school, as a key collection, or metal roller skates.

I’m not ready to give up the wheels though, because wheels always remind me of my roller-skates. I can still imagine the scratched toes of my cordovan Mary Jane shoes, from Buster Brown. Do you know the shoes? Is there still a Buster Brown shoe store? The toes of the shoes were punched through, like eyelet curtains, and I kept them buckled on the first hole. I couldn’t work the skate key very well, so I would scrunch my Buster Brown Mary Jane’s into the skates, which made my mother very angry.

There was a boy inside the shoe, and his dog too-Tige? Was that his name? Oh, and a song…

Does your shoe have a boy inside, what a funny place for a boy to hide, does your shoe have a dog their too, a boy and a dog and a foot in a shoe…..

I’ll leave the finale to those whose minds are equally boggled by hormones and age, or you could look it up on Bing!