Sometimes I Get Fun Messages On Monday Mornings

'Cause Verne still works a couple hours on Saturday afternoons.

You Think You Know A Place But...

One Of The Things I Learned
From Got Dinner
On That Thursday He Took Me All Over The Cellar

Note:  

This information contributes to the development

of a deep understanding

of important stuff.

The cellar closet that was used for

secret banana box lid storage

used to be

THE ONLY BATHROOM IN THE STORE!

This pic serves a two-fold purpose:

(1)
to remind you of the weirdness of having a secret banana box lid storage closet in the cellar of a general store

and

(2)
to show you

THE GRAFFITI!!!!

You didn't know we have graffiti, right?

Well, we do.

Becuase we are special.

It is not the ONLY graffiti either.

But you will have to wait for the other graffiti

becuase this post

IS ABOUT A BATHROOM!

O N W A R D... 

LEFT OVER TOILET PAPER FROM THE OLD DAYS!!

How amazing is THAT??

Imagine this as your only bathroom option.

Not all that much privacy involved.

Those were different times.

Wishful Thinking

See? Someone even thoughtfully supplied a connection to...

The Power Box

Spy Cam

Dog Fish Head

Really??

Scratch and Sniff Beer?

Who are those people at Dog Fish Head?

The Banana Box Thing

You would think it was a simple thing

to tell you about a banana box lid, right?

BUT

the story of Banana Boxes is a big story to tell,

because it involves

WOOD.

And the story of

WOOD,

in relation to the store,

IS HUGE.

It is so huge that I have been avoiding it,
although I find it endlessly fascinating.

I haven't even shown you all the stoves in the cellar, ffs.

See? I am starting to feel overwhelmed this very moment.

I guess I just have to go slowly, in parts.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Chapter I - The Glut
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ 

Once Upon A Time

there was a banana box lid surplus.

 They lived on the wide cellar stairs near the produce room.

 It was an impressive surplus.

There were banana box lids stashed in strange places, places about which, at the time, I knew nothing.

In fact, I knew very little about banana box lid usage, although, exhibiting signs of the premier human character flaw, I thought I knew it ALL.


You couldn't help noticing all those banana box lids choking the wide cellar stairs and stuffed in strange cellar closets. What was the destiny of all these lids? Was supply going to exceed available on-site storage?

I had my eye on The Situation.

Once in a while some noob would improperly dispose of a banana box lid. And we would all be like, "OMG! WHO MURDERED THE BANANA BOX LID?? Call the CSIs! Stay back! This is a crime scene!" Banana box lids are protected by Dan & Whit's Law, which is NEVER questioned. If you are supposed to save banana box lids then, no matter how many you see around you, you WILL save banana box lids.

Then gradually, without my really noticing it, the surplus began to dwindle.

And one day this winter, about a year after the glut, a Very Shocking Thing happened. The wide cellar stairs were empty. There were NO BANANA BOX LIDS ON THE STAIRS AT ALL.

NONE.

And THAT was a destiny moment.

Where had they all gone?
Why had they all gone?
Who was using them?
And for what?

Cookie Cam: Up The Rabbit Hole

What it is like to be a Banana Box Lid full of cookies:

There is a lot of waiting involved.

The Story of Black James, the Necromancer

This is the cookie eating place.
It is right below the Jello Condos.

I inherited this place from James.
But James didn't eat cookies here --
 he drank vodka.

When he left I cleaned up after him and found several of his bottles. One was a 750 ml size and it was half full. Verne's brother took that one home.

I used to keep a guest crate here but when Verne left I took it away. Verne and I would hide out here together and do cool stuff like taste test the fake maple syrups and try to carve stuff into the wooden posts.

Boys are fun.

Anyway, I saved one of the vodka bottles so I would have something to remind me of James and all the fun times we had together.
This is how it looks now:

Last November it looked like this:

 but someone disappeared my cardboard intervention.

I think it was George.

 This is James and his diamond earring:

I inherited the cereal aisle from James. I still miss him.

James inherited the cereal aisle from Larry.

Larry worked at the store for 54 years.

He retired shortly after I started working at The Store.

Larry used to hang around the produce room telling me stories,

like the one about his dog named Heck.

I never took a pic of Larry.

I hadn't gotten that bored yet.

The Moving Ramp: Unedited Footage

Contains:
One Handed Pole-ing,
Falling Cookies,
Gloom,
and
Shaking.
BUT --
it demonstrates how I get cookies upstairs.

The Jello Underground

Where the Jello Revolutionary Front waits...

Jello Condos.

... to liberate Jello Patriots in captivity.

The Vast Container Requirements Of Sugaring Season

Glass

So pretty

Then, just in case, a crap ton of back stock in the basement:

Plastic jugs:

One side of the basement

The other side of the basement

Tins:

Foundation Revelation Part I

I finally got down to the wine cellar to look at foundational things

and

I had a revelation!

#1: Into The Wine Cellar

First you come down the stairs by the office,
which I am SURE must be original old basement stairs.

 Then duck under the ramp (which you have done before here)

and you get into the wine cellar,

which is an amazing place all on its own.

This is near the north east corner of the original old building, to the right of the penguin in the above photo.

See the brick on top of the old stone foundation? That is the current outside north wall. Notice there is no sill plate!

Absolutely gorgeous.

 




The old beams are held up by brick pillars which are all over the old original basement.


#2: Into The BACK Wine Cellar
The wine cellar has two parts. 
If you turn left you get to the back part of the cellar.

You, of course, will notice right away that
 this doorway was busted through the original foundation wall,
which means there is an addition on the back of the original building
of which I was never aware.

#3 Parenthetical Back Wine Cellar Remarks
Remark  A: Just before you enter the back cellar you go past the Shelf Of Wines Special To Dan.

Once, last summer, an air conditioner in a window above this spot broke and flooded the north wall and floor of the wine cellar. We had to move every case of wine that was stacked against the wall and dry the floor. Dan's special wines got wet and we took every bottle off the shelf and dried it carefully. Dan was on his Annual Summer Jaunt (the only time he does not actually live and breath Store) and so was spared the pain of dealing with that event.

Remark B: The back part stores coffee as well as wine and so it smells beguiling in there.

Remark C: IT IS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE STORE YOU CAN'T HEAR THE MUSIC!!!!!

Doesn't it LOOK quiet?

Looking back out to the main wine cellar. Special Wines Shelf Part II is on the left. The very popular Vermont Coffee Company coffee is on the right.

(Shameless Coffee Company Promotion Link just for the fun of it)

   
#4 The Revelation Continued
Once I realized that there was an addition I wondered what that meant for
the stairs to the Boot Room,
the Chip Room,
the Baggie Back Stock Room,
the Nail Bench,
the Yet Unrevealed Toy Department,
and everything else beyond the office and the old basement stairs.
So now we must go back upstairs and examine the ceiling and beams by the office.
Which I am not prepared to do today.
In fact, I am exhausted by the organizational effort required to get THIS far.
And I need to go take some pics of what I want to show next.
It is worth the wait.
We are going to end up outside looking at the old north wall.
You are really going to like it.

So I got to thinking about the old cellar stairs

All weekend I was thinking about the old cellar stairs. Why did I say they went up to the old front door? Cellar stairs don't go up to the front door. They go up to the basement door or a bulkhead and rarely to the FRONT. I thought and thought and thought about it.

THEN

I remembered this photo

 HOT TAMALES!! There is a bulk head on the front right (left?) corner of the building!!

Ths archeologist is IN

Compressors and fans are everywhere underground.
The Red Compressor has always been particularly interesting to me.

That is my Raisin/Popcorn Backstock Storage Area directly to the left of the Red Compressor. The astute observer will be able to identify the location of the red shopping baskets.

On Wednesday I heard it chugging, which is fairly unusual,
so I went to stare at it for a while.

I puzzled over why it would be chugging and I suddenly knew what the Red Compressor was for -- THE AIR HOSE ON THE OUTSIDE WALL BY THE SODA MACHINES!

And then I realized what THIS box is for. This is a NEW box. It controls the NEW solar panels on the roof. They were installed about 2 years ago.

SO... my befuddled brain told me that if this box is for the solar panels, and this box is on the wall next to the Red Compressor, then I must be standing under the coffee area by the registers. 

But I was waaaaaay wrong.

It is waaaaaaaay more better 'n that.

As I slept on it Wednesday night it became clear to me that things weren't adding up. The Stairs to Nowhere go to the air hose wall and the Red Compressor and Solar Panel Box are one basement over from those stairs.

So when I went in Thursday morning I paid special attention.

 Looking to the left I could see the peak of the old original Merrill & Sons building.

See the blue fence wall thing on the lower left? Those are the customer restrooms.

And when I saw that I GOT IT! The Red Compressor is  UNDER THE OLD OUTSIDE WALL OF THE ORIGINAL STORE BUILDING! So I went back down to the Red Compressor area, to the last aisle where I found the J. R. Liggett's Old Fashioned Bar Shampoo, and saw THIS... THESE ARE THE ORIGINAL BASEMENT STEPS GOING UP TO THE OLD ORIGINAL FRONT DOOR!!!!!!


Now doesn't that just blow your skirts up??
Click here to see where these stairs are.
(partially hidden to the left behind the circuit panel board thing)

(I will be examining the old floor joists and foundations and sill plates 'n such. I think the wine cellar is a good place to start.)

Another Basement Mystery

It is down in the basement,
over by the candy shelves, behind some crates of nuts and dried fruit.
It used to be hidden by hugely tall stacks of candy and plastic bag boxes, so I never saw it until someone recently revamped candy and plastic bag storage.

It looks like half a rabbit hutch.

It is sitting on an old freezer case.

It looks like it has some sort of cash register in it.

It has cash register-like signs posted on it.

(Holly Moose was IN TROUBLE!)

It is like a lean-to for a cash register.

Was it outside once?

If so, why?

It must have been for the gas pumps.
That means Jeremiah definitely knows where this was and why it was there.
I bet he used it before they moved his card swiper to the entryway and gave him a cash apron to wear.
I don't ever remember seeing it outside.
BUT... sometimes I can't remember yesterday.
What makes me think I could remember 10 years ago?

The back has a D&W's bumper sticker.

The sides have nice brackets and handles.

Cardboard is used everywhere to pad, layer, or protect.

 This cardboard is from a case of American Flatbread Co. Pizza.

This is from the American Flatbread Co.'s website.

Their pizza looks good but I have never bought any. Too expensive.