For the first time in my life, I am building something. I have wanted to build something for a long time. This building is not made of wood or put together with bolts or nails, but it is a three-dimensional construction. In a previous entry I showed the "Tiki Village" diorama which I created for one side of a Trader Joe's display. I am now building the other side of the scene, which is a "Tiki Take-out" window and drive-through done in "retro-Hawaiian" style. (I am now firmly convinced that a "real" Hawaii does not exist.) This display is more elaborate than the previous one, with a backdrop and lots of (miniature) stage-set effects. Everything is made out of painted foamcore cut-outs; no wood is involved anywhere.

As I say, I have never built anything in my life. I grew up watching lots of carpentry and small-scale construction, but it was inconceivable to me that I could actually do it myself. Nor was I invited to participate. In my ethnicity and social class, a girl simply would never do carpentry or construction. It was just too dangerous. High school shop classes were off limits for girls. "Don't touch those tools, you could hurt yourself!" "Don't use that saw/razor blade, you'll cut yourself!" "Don't bang that hammer, you'll hit your finger!" "Don't touch that, it's sharp!" "Don't climb on that ladder, you'll fall off and break a bone!" And even more, NEVER go near those high-powered tools like band or skill saws you will lose body parts! After all those messages, I understood that carpentry and construction were far too risky for me to undertake. All construction workers I observed were male. Somehow boys and men were born with an instinct to hammer, saw, chop, bang, and build things, and they took to it naturally, with no one telling them that the knife or the saw or the drill or the axe was inevitably going to injure them. Perhaps the boy learning carpentry naturally with male relatives was expected to experience the risks and consequences (including injury) of working with construction tools and wood.

So I went into art and words rather than wood and metal, and over the decades the risks in my life multiplied and multiplied. A woman's life is one of constant and unremitting fear, day in and day out. The urban, suburban, and rural environment is jammed with thugs and rapists and things which can hurt or kill me. The roads are filled with hurtling vehicles driven by negligent drivers who are talking on their cellphones, or who could be drunk or just oblivious to me. Not only the environment, but my very own food is a threat. It is filled with fat and sugar and salt and other substances which will make me overweight and unhealthy. A younger man (wearing a construction belt loaded with tools) can eat with impunity what I, as an Older Woman, must shun. The world, as I grow older, becomes more and more constrained, and the temptation to go into the cocoon becomes stronger.

I got the chance to build something at work. Of course this was not full-size construction of wood and metal and composite; the male employees build those. This would be lightweight foamcore board glued together with melted plastic "hot glue," but it would still be a construction. I have a background doing two-dimensional traditional architectural drawing, but have never built an architectural model. I would have to do this with no instruction.

Even though I have not formally tested high on "spatial recognition" (supposedly a talent enjoyed much more by men than by women) I have a fair amount of 3-D visualization ability because of my architectural training. So without even drawing up plans (sorry, no time for this) I extrapolated what type of pieces I would need to cut and put together to make the Tiki Hut and Drive-Thru. I did some measuring on the "site" and drew the designs right on the foamboard. Then I took an X-Acto knife and…

OMIGOD I'm using an X-Acto knife! I could slice myself at any moment! It's tiny and sharp and…I cut the foamboard to size and assembled the pieces. No blood was shed. (But I could KILL myself doing this! I could slice my wrist! I could…) I painted the pieces and glued them together with hot glue. (No! Not hot glue! I could burn myself on that ominous pistol-like glue melter!) I applied more paint and design and quickly built a tropical-style A-frame. I will not say that this thing fit together perfectly. It didn't. There are all sorts of places where if this were a real building, it would not work. But it's basically a miniature stage set, and if the audience doesn't see it, that's all right then. I have never built a stage set, but I give much credit to a stage designer friend of mine who lives outside of Philadelphia and has built a miniature city in his basement complete with steel mills and ore boats. I never actually took lessons from him, but I watched him make stuff, and I guess some of the skill managed to transfer to me anyway.

Then it was time to place the construction on top of the cabinet where it would entertain the sandwich-buying customers. This meant that someone would have to climb up a ladder, push all the debris and dust away from the top of the cabinet, and put the thing up there. That person was me. OhmiGod so much dust on top of the cabinet I could inhale it and get an allergy attack! I inhaled it and sneezed. You mean I had to climb a ladder? I'm too old and frail to climb a ladder! I could fall off and get badly hurt! But someone had to put the thing up there. A co-worker helped by holding my building until I was somewhat stable on top of the ladder. Curious customers walked by watching. The foamcore was light, but it was also fragile and unwieldy, even more so than I was. I placed the assembly and managed to descend safely from the ladder! How dangerous was that! And I was able to pick up the ladder and return it to the back room with all the other very dangerous things like hand trucks and boxes of supplies and heavy pallets of goods, without getting bruised or crushed.

I didn't do this just once. I did it many times while working on assembling the different parts of the displays. I have been told that I may have to do more installations of this kind if the manager likes the Tiki Hut and Take-out. I must be wary. It is possible that I might have a dangerous and unladylike desire to do construction with real wood and tools, even outside the store's workplace.

Posted at 9:08 pm | link