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Behind Sliding Doors:<br />
A Look at What’s New at Rovers North<br />
What do you do with an old barn? That’s a good question. What<br />
about an old barn that was Rovers North’s sole building when it all<br />
began? Let’s take a step through the door from the adjacent sales<br />
department into the attached barn where old world meets modern<br />
day. The barn has character, including an old wooden sliding door<br />
that we still employ today. It’s a bit cantankerous to manage, unless<br />
you’ve got some Herculean strength in your arms and torso. When<br />
the door slams shut, because there’s no way to close it gingerly, not<br />
By Mike Koch<br />
run similar diameter gray plastic pipes, containing the cables for the<br />
high-speed computer network, which run to the computer that<br />
processes receiving and returns. Cobwebs sway lazily from rafters, in<br />
a surge of air from the old heater that hangs from the ceiling. Like<br />
the barn, it’s old but it earns its keep heating the workspace.<br />
A welcome luxury at the time of installation, considering the barn was<br />
unheated during the first few years it was in service. Keep in mind<br />
this is northern Vermont, where temperatures can stay well below<br />
Rovers North Fall of 1979<br />
only do you hear it, you feel it…from inside the sales department.<br />
I’m convinced the contents of the bookshelf on the abutting wall will<br />
one day come cascading down on some poor salesman’s head while<br />
he’s taking a customer’s order. With its poured concrete floor, which<br />
has “7-10-81” finger-drawn in the once wet cement, the barn once<br />
played the role of the Rovers North’s shop. Long before Land Rovers<br />
had advanced electronic engine management systems. This was<br />
during the era of points and condensers, simpler times. If those<br />
faintly oil-stained floors and post and beam frame could only speak,<br />
I’d bet they’d have verses to share on all sorts of projects. Today, steel<br />
lines for the former shop’s compressed air still course the walls, even<br />
though they haven’t been used in over a decade. On an adjacent wall<br />
zero for days, if not weeks, during a cold spell in the winter. Looking<br />
through the windows, distant picturesque mountains create the<br />
horizon, past the small family-run farms that run up and down<br />
Route 128.<br />
Ages ago, it housed a helical staircase, which was the only means<br />
of getting to the second floor. The majority of the parts for our<br />
mail order customers and our shop were stored there. Bulky parts,<br />
like exhaust systems were scary to handle on the narrow and<br />
precariously steep staircase. One wrong move and you’d go tumbling<br />
down, with whatever you were carrying, like Humpty Dumpty. Today,<br />
we climb a much wider and reassuring set of stairs to the second<br />
floor, where it’s remains unheated. There’s pink fiberglass insulation<br />
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