Shedful of Memories

The Home Improvement item: “Shed Provides Handy Storage,” (June 23) released a torrent of memories for me. In 1963 my family had a very similar tool shed that, as my playhouse, I imagined to be my cowboy bunkhouse, barn and office for my “great construction projects.”

But in that era of urban renewal, my parents lost the argument with a very persistent building inspector to save the shed from demolition. You see, although it sat on a cement yard, it did not have a cement foundation and thus did not meet city codes! Fantasy meets reality; a child grows up.

In addition, those eaves of the pictured shed remind me that we were ordered to trim and/or cut off our house eaves (possible fire hazards) and wrap ugly stucco around our quaint Cape Cod-style house. Most neighbors couldn’t afford to comply with city regulations and sold out to eager speculators. Their “grand illusions” of Miami-like high-rises eventually failed.

That is how Ocean Front Walk in Venice came to have parking lots, which fostered outdoor vending, which lured the multitudes, who catalyzed the “entertainers,” all of which led to mini-malls, those ubiquitous juggernauts of city life, at the beach!

Well, the memories do come aflooding given a little turn of the tap!

GORDON ELKINS, Venice