This is a membership Morsel from “Too Young to Retire”.
Wally the Warehouse
Wally was a born in the industrial area of the city and was strictly blue collar through and through. He grew up in a time of prosperity, when the city was growing, and it was expanding. It was an exciting time for him and all the buildings around him. So much was going on and everyone was optimistic of the future.
He had lots of friends who also arrived around the same time he did. One of his friends was a Billy the brewery that made the best larger and beers. Another friend he had was a barrow factory. He was a dry cooperage and made barrows for shipping dishes and goods that didn’t need watertight containers.
Wally was a furniture factory, and he was so proud of the beautiful couches, chairs and other items that were made in him. On the first floor they had a show room that he was especially proud of, there were rugs on the floors, and fancy gas lights that hung from the ceiling.
People would arrive in their carriages and walk around looking at the furniture. If they bought something, Wally would have the manager take them into the factory and show them where all the magic had happened.
He was a concrete Post and Beam concrete construction with a pretty red brick infill. His owner always kept the outside neat and business like. He had a show room built on one end where all his creations were shown off and sold to new owners. It was always sad to see the chairs and couches go even though he knew they were going to good homes.
He made friends with the horses that brought all the material to make his furniture, and those that delivered the furniture to its new homes.
Wally saw all the different pieces being born and would teach them everything they needed to know to be the best furniture around.
They were right next to downtown and conveniently located on the main trolley line that ran through the city. The men who worked there would take the trolley every morning and leave at night. He became real friends with the Tim the trolley as he noisy clanged up down the street.
Over the years changes slowly occurred. The gas lights were replaced with electric lights. Wally felt the electric ones were cold and harsh, not warm and soft like the gas lights. Running water was installed and it tickled him every time someone turned on a faucet and flushed a toilet.
He remembered one of his horse friends saying he was being put out to pasture. Wally had no idea what that was. The horses and wagons slowly were replaced by these noisy horseless carriages and big trucks which would belch black smoke and rumble up to his loading docks. They would open up the back end so furniture could be moved in. Wally always wondered how the furniture did after it left his protected space.
As the years went by the area became seedier and weeds took over any spot not being used. The smoke from the coal chimneys had stained Wally and his friends’ walls giving them a dingy look. Wally didn’t care, it was what he did on the inside that mattered.
Slowly all his neighbors stopped talking to him. They were to be embarrassed that they had been abandoned. The cooperage was now a warehouse, and they made a smelly chemical in it. The brewery was relegated to being abandoned, people came in and removed all his beautiful copper cooking pots and steel fermenting tanks.
Their roof leaks were unaddressed and broken windows not fixed. One of his neighbors down the street had a wall collapse and he was quickly demolished before any of them got a chance to say goodbye. Wally felt lucky that his owner was still taking care of him, but he was concerned.
The people were no longer coming like they used to. He heard that his furniture was too expensive and outdated. He had also heard rumors that there were new factories out in the suburb that everyone was moving to. They had one floor, and lots of space around them for workers to park cars and trucks. He heard rumors that his friend and he were too old, outdated and not adaptable.
One day the moving truck came, and he heard the men talking about all the machines were being shipped overseas to make the furniture. It was supposed to be the same quality and a lot less expensive. He yelled and moaned to all who would listen, but they all ignored him.
Wally tried saying he could do it, but the trucks that were hired told him, “We were only hired to move and can’t change what is happening.” Soon his interior was empty, and he felt lost. He asked his friends down the street what did they do. One said that an auto shop had moved into him and the men dismantling cars that had been kidnapped. He tried to cover his ears as the cars were chopped up and cried out for mercy.
Another sat abandoned and was waiting for the day he would be replaced with a younger building. The city grew, old building s were replaced with brash new buildings, all glass and steel, or just torn down and their site paved over for parking lots. Wally would tell anyone who come by that he was still a good building, but no one stopped to listen.
Even his old friend the streetcar came by one day and said he was told he was to old and was being replaced with a shiny new orange one, who talked about how he was greatest around. Wally was feeling really old and wondered what would happen to him when he it came his time.
Then something started to change, he couldn’t put his hand on it. He saw the workmen tearing up the asphalt road and laying down bricks. He remembered when the original street had been paved in bricks and how pretty it looked. He noticed one of his old friends Thomas getting a bath, showing off all his beautiful terracotta.
His friend was all excited, they were replacing his windows with new ones. He was really proud of his new doors, they looked the same as his original doors but the new hinges and glass gave him a regal appearance. He told Wally that some Agency was moving into him who saved old buildings. Wally pleaded with him to send these people over. I need a new purpose in life and just sitting here will not solve my problem.
The old office building across the street was getting a whole new face lift. She was so excited when she looked at the plans. Instead of being a dumpy old Victorian she was getting some of that new brick and the same big glass windows she had seen all the new building get.
They were opening up her interiors and making all the floor plans open. She couldn’t wait for the transformation. Wally saw Sally’s Architect and asked the wind to blow through him so he could whistle at her. She stopped what she was doing and looked at Wally and asked her companion who owns that building?
Down the block a new arena was built, and hundreds of people came to by bus and trolley every weekend and sometimes during the night. The street was coming alive and there was excitement everywhere. Wally would keep telling everyone who walked by him, “look at me, I have a lot of life left and I can still do a lot of things.
Wally just sat there. He was getting gloomier by the day. Was anyone going to care for or help him. He felt forgotten and nothing his friends could said to him would cheer him up. The city continued to grow around him, and he was feeling small. He wasn’t tall like Sally, or Pretty like Thomas.
Finally, one day his owners showed up with this lady in a white hat who had worked on Sally. She walked through the building, she rubbed is columns and said this is well built. She looked at the brick and said the workmanship is excellent. She said this will be a perfect venue. They went up the stairs and Wally heard, “What a great banquet hall.”
Wally wasn’t sure what this meant so he asked Sally and his friend Thomas if they knew what these people were talking about? Neither did they, till one of the hotels down the street said, “They are wonderful spaces, I have a great one called a Ballroom and two other smaller ones that go with my restaurant.
The owner and the man in the white hat then walked out on the roof and the man in the white hat said you know this place is built like a brick shit house and you could park a fleet of dump trucks up here.
Wally grew alarmed. When Sally was being rehabbed, they put a line of little green toilets outside of her for people to do smelly things in. Wally knew he didn’t want to be a big shit house; he did want his red brick painted green. He also knew what a dump truck was and couldn’t understand why somebody would want to put a hundred dump trucks up there. There was no ramp, how would they get them up there?
It was all so confusing. Then they put a fence around Wally like they had when another of his friends was torn down. He cried out to Sally, and Thomas I have to many good years left. Can you help me?” Thomas having wisdom beyond his years said, “Be patient, I think great things are going to happen to you.”
Over the next 6 months, his floors were cleaned, and new windows put in. They cleaned his roof and put a fence around it and had tables and bars and gazebos on it. Downstairs they built not one but two restaurants. They added lights and booths and a dance floor. It was all so exciting, all these new things he was learning and that were happening to him.
He had beers from Billy brew house down the street which being served there. Billy was so excited that all his original recipes had been hidden in a safe and when he was being fixed up the new owners found the safe behind a plaster wall. They were all excited and Billy was so happy to have his original beers being made.
The day the restaurants opened it seemed like there must have had a million people there. Eating in his restaurants, a big party on the roof another big party on the second floor. Wally was in his glory. Never in his life did he expect that he could be become the shining star downtown.
After that day he couldn’t wait to be open, serving lunch to all the lawyers and judges downtown. Having stockbrokers giving advise to their clients over lunch. There were parties on game days. He was all excited one day when Tim the Trolley suddenly reappeared.
It was a special run celebrating the 100 years the system had been running. Walley asked him, “Where have you been all these years?”
Tim said, “I was put in an old age home called a museum, but they decided to let me out to strut my stuff and show all those young wiper snappers how to transport people in style.”
Wally was glad he had finally figured out what his new career would be from his industrial past. The transition had not been easy and convincing his owners that he was still able to change and be useful if they just gave him a chance had been hard. He was glad his friends Tim, Sally, and Billy were still around. He also had made friends with some of the new kids on the block. He was happy with life now and looked forward to many more years.
Life has so much to offer if you are willing to pursue it and not give up. You need a purpose to get up in the morning, lets discuss what your new purpose in life is going to be.
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