During the 1960s America began to focus on the forthcoming bi-centennial celebrations of our 1776 birth. That year and those that followed are regarded as Colonial America. Many became interested in all things associated with that period, in particular, early American and colonial home furnishings. Annie and I had spent our honeymoon in Williamsburg, VA in 1955 and were smitten with the charm of Colonial Williamsburg. I particularly enjoyed visits to all the craft houses where men and women demonstrated the trades of that era, woodworking, blacksmithing, basket weaving, and cast metals to name a few.

The house Annie and I built in 1961 is colonial style inside and out(Our daughter, Laura, lives there now). Over the years we selected antiques and other period furnishings for our home. Wilson, NC is about 20 miles north and a bit east of us. This town had become a mecca of antique dealers. Edgar Boone(now deceased) was an auctioneer for a tobacco company and had started conducting weekend auctions. He expanded his interest by opening a large store for antique and reproduction furniture. He sold wholesale to dealers and retail to walk-ins. Edgar and his buyers scouted Pennsylvania and New England for purchases of period style furniture and antiques. Just a year or so into the business, he began importing antiques from the UK, container loads. Crowds were huge, prices to match.

Nearby his location was a business, Batt's Lamp and Shades. They sold handcrafted wrought iron lighting, reproduction colonial furniture, lamp shades, standard and custom, and home accessories, candles, etc. We were frequent shoppers there.

Since childhood, I had always been interested in woodworking and by 1962 had purchased a drill press, table saw and numerous hand-tools electric and manual. There was a small room across our carport I used as my shop. Evenings and weekends I began to craft a few colonial style items in pine which required considerable time applying a finish. I was selling a few pieces to support the craft, but soon determined this was not a good investment of my time.

I thought about the wrought iron lighting seen at Batt's Lamp and Shade and concluded it was far less labor intensive. This craft stuff was a hobby and not a livelihood. Shallco brought home the bacon. After careful thought I decided I could produce a few lamps and fixtures similar to the creations at Batt's but I would market them mail-order only. This would avoid the need for retail space and would not compete with Batt's who did not offer mail-order. My customer orders could travel through Shallco's shipping department.

The name our proprietorship became The Village Forge. The combined efforts of myself and a couple of guys in Shallco's machine shop over a few weekends produced a few custom forms and jigs for bending and machining mild steel into the parts needed. We located a custom lampshade supplier in Greenwich Village of New York City as a source for handmade shades.

Advertisements were in Early American Life, Colonial Home, Yankee and a few other selected magazines and specialty publications. A couple of source books picked us up as a preferred supplier of quality colonial style lighting.

We quickly out grew the shop at home and was lucky to find an empty but dilapidated house on a property nearby the Shallco plant location. We rented the house which became our machine shop. Eight years later, 1980, we acquired the house and property which included an old barn. The house was eventually raised, but not before we renovated the barn for a larger shop with upstairs weekend living space(great room, kitchen, full bath, and screened deck).

We had a nice operation going through 1976 but expected a decline in sales thereafter. We were correct. Though we didn't push local sales, we did sell quite a few floor lamps out of our home.

By the early 90s, I realized the increased cost of shipping would be a further deterrent to mail-order sales and located a buyer of the goodwill, tooling and inventory. We sold The Village Forge.

About 10 years later my grandson decided he would like to operate a small lamp business. I scrounged around and put together a setup for making only a floor lamp design. This was after I determined the buyer of The Village Forge had discontinued his operation. All was for naught . Grandson fell in love, end of project.

I still had enough parts to assemble about 25 floor lamps. They made nice gifts, personally crafted. There are quite a few lamps and fixtures scattered about homes in the US and I will be remembered more for those handcrafted items than my career in electronics.