Carl's  Place

            Hey, guys…if you want to spend an hour looking at a hobby set-up that will make you wish you had thought of it first, see if you are able to have Carl invite you to see his playground on Johns Island.   Carl is very generous with his invitations, so there is a good chance he will ask you to drop in.  From the driveway you will only see a winding, well-kept rutted drive, wide enough for only one car, but when you reach the end of the drive, there is plenty of room for parking and plenty of areas to investigate.  You may first notice the well-situated yellow school bus parked to the back of the property before you notice the colorful “Visit Rock City” bird house hanging from the low slung willow tree branch at the back of the house.  Either one is worth the visit, but, there is more!

            Never mind that Carl lived exclusively in the school bus for five years before it stopped running when he reached Johns Island and found that it would be necessary for him to find work and establish some roots.  And roots he did establish, starting with the house he designed and built with the help of two contractors. Then came the garage, that houses the multi-level wood work shop/metal work shop/model train layout of professional quality, followed by the shed, at whose contents we can only guess.

            Let’s start with the train layout.  If you’ve seen it in a model train magazine or seen it for sale at an auction, it’s here in Carl’s garage.  He has brought things in and his many friends have sent things in from as far away as French antique auctions and as near as your local dump.  It’s not just trains that traverse tracks high and low, disappearing into tunnels and traveling into unseen regions beyond the scope of the train room and reappearing through an opening that would at first appear to be a construction mistake, but it’s also stacks of beautiful model trains that are controlled at a master panel that splices the track on which they sit, to allow them to join the chase around the room, past collections of farm animals, horse and buggies and back again to their storage shelf, only to be replaced at the push of a button with the train which was sitting above it.

            It’s strange to admit it, but one of the more interesting items in the garage is the antifreeze drawers.  Yes, that right!  Nooks and crannies are organized storage for nuts and bolts that are placed in antifreeze jugs, with the jugs placed on their side and the upper side cut out to allow for storage.  Just grab the lid and pull…instant drawer.  You must see this for yourself.  It is not to be missed!

            We haven’t even gotten to the house.  It is decorated with the perfection interior designers demand and the book shelves are lined with books about railroads, model trains and pop-up books.  The books are not just thrown on the shelves, but they are placed with a decorator’s eye for true eye-appeal.  There is even a hand-made afghan, thrown over the easy chair, in front of the color TV.  Definitely a room for the manly-man!

            Let’s finish with the school bus.  It not only has a back seat for two from a jeep for a driver’s seat, but it has a wood grained potty sitting shotgun.  Reportly it works to perfection and is environmentally friendly!  The presence of the shower and the large plate glass windows in the living area of the bus provide the comforts one could find in most homes, but all of this is on wheels.  The photo below does not do justice to the bus, but at least its color can still bring back memories to those of us who once waited for a similar bus on  a neighborhood street corner.  Over the years the bus has lost some of its integrity, as it has been robbed of parts that are now in service elsewhere on the Blum compound, but it still has the appeal of a doll house or an abandoned train station or old caboose over which you would love to have free reign to create your own little fantasy world.