After 30 years in various garages, I've finally got my old ship drydock tables back together.
I don't remember my room in my grandmother's house having a desk in it when we moved in in 1974, just the terrifying print of the sad Depression-era baby. But it did by 1977, which I suspect means the desk came from Pop's old stationery store next to the Hub because it was sold around that time, and various tables and shelves made it into the house and garage - including the monster safe in the garage.
It likely came from the old Demmer Company at one point or another. (Maybe it was Ms. Rountree's? Is it looking at us from the mezzanine in this picture of Pop at the original Marshall Stationery in 1950?) This August 1977 photo shows the initial docks painted on the desk (which had previously been antiqued, so this is all reversible).
You just know Mother had to really appreciate me scribbling "Carrier Docks" on a perfectly good table. And no, I don't recall why my 7th grade class picture is in the background.
By high school two years later the docks were filled out, and I was using one of Mom's card tables and the seat to a piano (which is in front of the table in the photo). I added an airfield for the small planes that didn't belong to a specific carrier, complete with a helo pad, and marked out individual spots for 1/700 carrier squadrons where the paints had been in 1977. And the first dock got detailed a bit to resemble 1010 at Pearl Harbor. And I Sharpie'd in the more mature lettering "Naval Base" in the corner.The big Revell 1/542 Essex class carriers usually filled it - Ricky Toussaint gave me five he'd built (who has five of the same model? I mean other than me? Even I only built four of them.) and you can still see them in the 1980-ish photo at left. With, of course the pictures of Jane Seymour, Carrie Fisher and Battlestar Galactica because of course. (As an aside, why did it never occur to me to either sand off the ridiculous keels that made those Revell carriers list, or add bilge keels to make them sit level?)
The desk was later moved out to the garage on West Burleson, probably when Lucinda moved back and Zach moved it, and later when the garage was being cleaned out to our garage on Harris Lake. I moved it to the carport at Fern a couple of years ago with the idea of using it as the study desk there, but we've never found the room. Yesterday afternoon I carried it down to the workshop and set it up so I have a place to sit and read, write or work if I want a closer view of the lake.