Earlywood: Yesterday's Shame (and Tomorrow's)

Publisher’s note: Welcome to Earlywood, a free excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996, which we share without shame every Saturday. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post published in 2008. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!

Years ago I pursued one of our naughty cats into my oldest daughter’s closet, and I saw something that was just shocking.

It was a … well, it’s difficult to describe. Imagine a blanket chest without a lid. What form of furniture is that? A feed trough? In any case, it was chest-like. And it had some Southwest touches. The top edge had a cut-out that looked like stairsteps. And that same detail was repeated in the plinth.

It was built using white pine. The corners were joined with finger joints. Large ones. Let’s call them “elephantine thumb joints.” And it had a water-based topcoat on it. I know this because the grain was clearly raised.

I ha…