I live in the Terrell Heights neighborhood a few miles from downtown San Antonio. It’s a groovy place. We have our own playground/park, our own little business center, groovy curvy streets with names like Greenwich and Devonshire (where the hobbits live) and a lovely little community garden (where the gnomes live).
Most of the residents (like me) live in single story residences built after the war back in the late forties, early fifties and the houses line the streets with their various rooflines and floor plans. At dusk you can walk around the streets with your dog or push your baby carriage along and imagine the folks living inside the lit, lovely spaces. I used to do that when I had a dog and it was enchanting.
Down the street from me lives Mr. Bill Simons who is the subject of this dissertation. He is groovy. Having retired from his occupation as part owner of a local bicycle shop he now spends much of his time in his backyard workshop, building and assembling various inventions and devices such as the bicycleluminator and the bicyclevoterator (both of which I had a part in as test pilot or documentarian). His shop reminds me of an elven workshop, something which might exist at the North Pole where Santa Claus lives.
Click on the play button above to listen to the interview with Bill Simons in his backyard workshop.
hammer collection
awesome lathe
shop / long view
drill bit collection
virgin of guadalupe with grinder
metal band saw
Bill and Mark Simpson on their cross country bicycle trip
starship sandbox at the community garden / day
starship sandbox / night
nativity / day
nativity / night
Thanks Bill!
my neighbor Bill