My favorite clubhouse,
built in 1959, lasted until 2012.
I grew up in a small town in California, with my older brother and single
working mom. When I was a kid, I built four clubhouses with my friends. We
constantly remodeled them, planted gardens around them, drew up rules, kept
club journals, and spent endless hours hanging out in these places that were
our own.
Our parents never interfered unless we invited them in
for an “inspection”. They trusted us to spend endless hours outside (with no
cell phones!) and not maim ourselves with sharp tools. They also seemed pleased
that we were doing something constructive and were out from under their feet!
When I wasn’t actually building a clubhouse, I spent a
lot of time thinking about clubhouse possibilities. I was inspired by
clubhouse-building stories in comic books, a memorable children’s novel, Billy Had a Clubhouse, and the 1923
edition of Audel’s Carpenters and
Builders Guides. The Audel books
consisted of countless ink diagrams of house-construction details, and very few
words! I obsessively drew floor plans, imaginary clubhouses, and our real
clubhouses covered in snow or viewed in the future!
Our clubhouses were
of solid wood (no cardboard), tall enough to stand in and had doors with
hinges. I was determined to build them “right” so I learned a lot about
carpentry and wound up with some solid structures, one of which stood, more or
less intact, for 53 years! I also learned some valuable social skills and other
cosmic truths along the way; those things that parents and schools try to teach
us, but often to deaf ears. My clubhouse-building finally ended at age 16 when
we moved 700 miles away…and my grandfather and I built a bedroom!
I continued
to build other shelters after the clubhouses. I still like doing it. I studied
architecture briefly in college and learned carpentry ‘on the job’ from three
very different but accomplished master carpenters. For several years as a
freelance carpenter, I built room additions, cabins and one house for myself;
which felt like building a clubhouse all over again, only bigger.
Professionally, I was drawn to
visual art, and received a Bachelors Degree in art in 1980, at Western Oregon University.
I worked as a graphic artist and designer until starting my own freelance art
studio, called Oceans and Dreams, in Kaukauna,
Wisconsin in 1990. I continue to
work in watercolor and acrylic, painting ocean waves and seascapes of the West
Coast.
However, my interest in building
small shelters, especially clubhouses, has never diminished. In 1991 I began to
write a memoir about my clubhouse experiences, and sought out similar stories
from other builders through do-it-yourself homebuilding magazines. I'll share these stories and what I've learned about building clubhouses in this online saga...
