“THE BARN”
PLANTATION, FLORIDA 1971
“The Barn” started out as an experiment
with the support of the long time mayor of
Plantation, “Jim” Ward. It seems natural
that a place called “The Experimental
Station” would be used for an experiment in
trust. The idea was, if as teenagers we could
set the place up, we could run it on our own.
It was a stretch to put such trust in young
people back then as it is now. Lots of hours
were spent here both having fun and
working to change a historic “barn” into a
meeting place for friends.
What started out as a battle to stop a teen curfew turned into a unique
experience learning about both hard work and politics. The building on
Peters Road had been a real barn then part of an agricultural experimental
lab. The building long deserted and vandalized, had the Jaycees using the
second floor for meetings and somehow we took over the ground floor.
I think we had lost our minds thinking we could turn the
building into anything someone would want to go to. Most of the
inside had been trashed and the outside from the windows to
the roofing needed lots of work.
HEY! COWS USED TO POOP HERE!
The Jaycees were doing some work on their
part of the building and we were able to get
some help on things such as plumbing and
electrical connections. In the picture above,
guy of the left is Gareth Steele, not sure of the
other person. Gareth is no longer with us but
the picture (they were playing around) shows
him in his element. He may have been built
close to the ground but he never let that slow
him down.
By the time we were done we had a place in the back for band to play and built
risers for people to sit on. The roof was full of holes so we put a tarp we found
over it. The tarp stuck to the sticky tar and no more leeks. The patio had some
strange rubbery gunk all over the place but after a weekend of scraping all that
was left was clearing away the dirt.
The area had acres of land between the
building and any homes. This was great
when it came to noise however we found
there were a lot of younger local kids
that liked to play in the woods and use
the “Barn” for target practice with BB-
guns (and yes they could hit the broad
side of a barn). As soon as we had
windows they were broken. In the end
we found those responsible and some of
their parents very nicely donated
furniture (and a pool table).
On weekends there was always a group of
people working to clean the place up and
maybe a few out having fun too. I think
the guy on the motorcycle above is me
because I’d go out looking for our little
vandals every weekend but don’t know
the stunt driver on the left. Because the
grounds were used to test how plants
would survive in the local soil, there was
a wide variety of plants and trees behind
the barn.
When you work with a zero dollar budget you do with what you can find. Pool
tables and Ping-Pong in the rooms along with a rather eclectic collection of
furniture. In the room with the pool table the celling was a mess and always
left dust on the pool table. Thinking about it now it probably contained
asbestos but we only wanted to protect the table so an old parachute added
some protection and to us looked cool.
A candy and soda machine that had seen there better day fit right in to the
decor and every now and then they even worked. The selections on the jukebox
we controlled but for the life of me I can’t remember where we ended up
putting it (we didn’t keep it in the hall). I think for a while we moved it out to
the patio when were open and back in when we locked up the place.
The project was a great introduction to the political
process because in the middle of things we had a new
mayor that did not think the same as Mayor Ward.
Some of us had also actively campaigned for “the other
guy” during the election. Things went from trust to
confrontation and downhill from there.
To me it was an amazing project. Did we do everything
right? Heck no – we were teenagers in the shadow of
the 60’s. I do think we worked harder than ever to earn
the trust Mayor Ward gave to us and did more with less
than the city ever tried to do for teenagers.
In the end Mayor Carter won (it was not even a
contest). After the place sat locked up and vacant,
again the target of vandals, he decided to use it for fire
training thus turning everything we had worked to
build to ash.
Someone painted in large letters on the barn “TO OUR
“FRIEND” JACK CARTER - THANKS.” Nobody took
credit for the art work but to me it had to be Gareth – it
was placed high above everything visible to everyone –
in the “in your face” style – just like Gareth.
I wrote a story about the Barn’s closing
in the school paper (below) and a second
one about the burning. The second story
was at first was banned from publication
(too political) by the school’s principal.
After the local newspaper picked up the
story, and some talk about freedom of the
press, we had to give equal time to the
mayor and the editorial went to print.
The mayor passed on saying anything
and in flames the bit of Plantation
History faded away. I still have both
stories, the first is posted below however
the second one is still waiting for input
from Mayor Carter (just joking – it’s in
storage back in the States . . . I think.)
My first byline!
Go to page two
for the story. The
rest of the paper
is a blast to read
also. I love the
full page ad on
the last page –
groovy!