Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 13:07:42 -0500
From: nabooko
Subject: Looking at my world thru window-less stained glass
I guess I should be ashamed of myself- but I’m not. I dreamed the dream- just never got to follow thru. I still dream by the way- it is just that those dreams tend to continue sleeping while I am out and about and putting off doing things. But the pictures, the images are still in my head- going round and round, getting fancier, prettier, more elaborate with each moment I allot to it.
It all started when I moved from a town of five hundred in Montgomery County N.C.- to New York City. Seems such a short time ago, but in reality, it has been 57 years. I was young, considered “artistic”- the word “creative” wasn’t used those days in Biscoe.
Anyway, I had a job waiting for me- I had a small room in a private home. I had no work space, no tools to work with- Just a small bedside table. I was working during the day and attending Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in the evenings.
The New York City phone book was a marvel in those days. Big. Very thick and very interesting. One could spend the week-end just reading the ads- They were in the thousands. Everything you could want- Toys, clothing, lumber, paints, fabrics, wall paper- you name it, it was there.
One day I was reading and stumbled across a section for wholesale stained glass. I discovered one firm was offering free samples. My instant idea was to order the free samples, make something arty and sell it. No investment- all profit.
The box of samples were delivered to me, via UPS (Very new delivery service at the time)- I was shocked that the box of glass was almost too heavy for me to pick up and carry up four flights of stairs. I soon was to discover the box contained approx. 225 samples of colorful glass. Each two inches by three inches. Each with a label showing the company name (S.A. Bendheim, 122 Hudson St. NY. 13 (pre-zip code) Most had a stock number and a price. I can’t remember how it was sold- by the sheet, foot or what.
I had no idea of how to go about making anything with the glass at the time. The box of samples sat in my closet on Washington St. in Brooklyn. I later moved to West 70th St. in Manhattan, the glass went along- still unused. Thus began a ritual. Move, move the glass. From 70th St. to Brooklyn Heights. Then to Riverside Drive- Then to Thompson St. (now Sho-Ho)- from there to Lexington and 60th. From there to East 70th street. From there to East 33rd St. Then to Brooklyn Heights again. From there to Flushing- Still no attempt at making anything using the glass- but still the dream.
From Flushing back to Manhattan 60th and Third Ave. After two years there, moved up-state to Valatie NY. That place wasn’t right, so I moved to an old farmstead in the same area. It was there that I felt confident and inspired to make something with the glass. I bought a glass cutter and some lead canes to work with. What a disaster. It is work to cut glass into a useable shape!!! What a disappointment. So, I set the box of glass aside. Something to do on a rainy day.
Seven years later, I decided to move back to NC. It was now 1973- The box of glass was carefully packed an put in storage until I got back from Europe and relocated to NC. The glass was delivered and placeed on a shelf in a metal cabinet in a back room. There it has remained until I decided last month that I had to do something with it. I dug it out and was still astounded at the weight of those 200+ pcs of colored glass.
Again, I looked at it and wondered what had possessed me to lug it around all these years? Also thinking how simple it would have been to just make a colorful window- using them side by side, up and down. Simple? It is no simpler now than it was that day fifty some years ago.
But I won’t think about that today- I’ll think about that tomorrow- after all tomorrow is another window-less stained glass day.
N.A. Booko
Click on the link below to take a peek at the box of glass:
www.mindspring.com/~expectations/glass.jpg