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