Al Stewart Anyone? Nope. Renovation at Roberts. I started in 1988. The carpet on the floors had started a few years earlier. The show cases were old and wooden, the primary mode of merchandise display was gondolas in the aisles. We were a catalog showroom. Well lots of things have changed, and lots of things have stayed the same. By this time next week just about everything will be different. The changes when they do happen are usually dramatic. Like the building of the photo-lab, or the addition of the the warehouse an d loading dock. But the most sweeping (and mopping) changes are just about to happen. The carpet, which is so old and faded, is about to be replaced by laminate wood flooring. Bruce recently mad the comment that removing the carpet could cause a collapse in the building, he figures after 20+ years the carpet has become a structural member, a load bearing element. On the album Pyramid, The Alan Parsons Group aptly says, "What goes up must come down, what must rise must fall." Such is the case with the first managers office, come e-bay office come scrap pile yesterday. "Ch-ch-ch changes turn and faced the strain... " David Bowie. "Strange days indeed, most peculiar momma..." John Lennon.
The scary thing is how fast almost twenty years working at Roberts can be erased both physically and figuratively. The knocking down of walls and moving of cases makes tomorrow a new day with a new outlook, and something different. Of course in 6 months it will seem like it's always been the way it is going to be in a few weeks. Such is the nature of repetitive behavior and unchanging patterns.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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