Suggestion Box

There is a saying amongst urban explorers (not sure if I count myself amongst their ranks) which says “leave things better than you found them”. To me, this especially applies to raiding a site for ‘souvenirs’. I think everyone has to stop and question their motives before removing an artifact from a site, but carry on if they feel it is the right thing to do. It is a complex decision and a number of factors weigh in. Rather than philosophize about this for too long, I will just state that when finding damaged things, the application of the rules changes quickly.

Artifacts become damaged in one of two ways. The first is Father Time’s stern hand, dispensing his punishment. These items probably deserve some TLC if you see fit to give it, because otherwise their certain fate is to erode into dust or one day catch the wrecking ball.

But the second are items that were purposefully abused by adults with childlike faculties or even children themselves. Both are devoid of good judgement and like to treat a site like a playground and smash things just to feel powerful. Windows are the first to go of course, and when the supply of stones fails, or the panes, they often see fit to kick things over and such. These items have been left for dead. No one saw the meaning in them before they had havoc wrecked on them, and afterwards they are just like a stray alley cat who’s seen a few fights. But even the alley cat needs a friend.

The electrical shop is clearly visable from Torrence Ave, just north of the gatehouse but pushed back from the fence line a bit. It is – or was – one of the few multi story buildings on the site (the coal bunker isn’t really a “building”, but even if it was the ovens department is at least 1/8 mile away). However, the stairs lead to a void where the second floor once stood. Looking down you can see only the roof, flat on the earth below. There is a small storage area below the staircase where some old mechanical manuals are stored, and a small but largely obstructed adjaccent room.

But going back to the foot of the stair case, there is a door to your right which as well, leads to nothing. Somewhere in this mess was the cafeteria for the plant, converted to same in the mid 1980s. And there next to the door was a wooden box, fastened to the wall and painted a vivid yellow. It was unmarked, and didn’t seem to ever have been. But the slot in the top told the tale: this may have been a suggestion box.

It was still secured well to the cheap wooden paneling but someone had pried it open. The lock nor the latch failed, but the frame did, weakened by the screw holes for the latch. And there it split into two pieces, but it hung sadly as the tiny lock held it all together. I have never spent much time in this ‘building’ or the area as there is little to see, so I don’t know if I ever noticed it before. Someone really wanted to see what was inside, but whatever they found (if anything) was long gone.

Impulsively, I decided I needed to take it home. I knew that the satisfaction of gluing this back together would be far too pleasing to pass up. Plus the adventure of getting it back to my truck in Hegewisch via bike. I gave it one good tug and almost fell down, none of the EIGHT (!) screws through the back of the cabinet went into a stud, just the thin paneling.

My bungee was far too short to tie this to my bike rack, but I quickly fashioned something (I even had a plan B if it didn’t work, this thing was coming home no matter what). From there it was all gravy. I had just run out of wood glue at home, so I stopped at Aniol Ace Hardware on Baltimore, just 1/2 block from where I was parked. I was always curious about this place, it looks closed down from the outside and the inside looked like a flea market or garage sale. But they did have yellow glue, and the bigger bottle cost me $4 flat.

From there I clamped it up for about 18 hours and it was of course like concrete. I reattached the latch (which I bent back straight in my vice) and replaced one of the three screws which was lost. And now it has a home, and shall never see any abuse for the rest of it’s days.

UPDATE: On 1/15/22 I noticed something I must have seen countless times before but failed to properly compute the meaning. In the coal bunker (bench level), in the small room adjacent to the bathroom in the north end of the floor I found this. An identical suggestion box (though mine has a continous hinge and this does not).

Like mine, some dolt has pried open the box and the wood has cracked in an identical fashion. But most interesting is the ‘TQI’ written on the door of the box, and stenciled on the bulletin board above. TQI (sometimes written as TQIP) is Total Quality Improvement (Process) – which backs up my theory that these are suggestion boxes, looking for ways to improve plant processes. I ended up taking that bulletin board, you can read about its restoration here.

UPDATE: In mid February 2022 – over 8 months since I brought the suggestion box home – I started having a little trouble with the door. It seemed odd that it would take that long to acclimate…I figured perhaps it had dried out some and thought I’d just have to put the belt sander on the edges of the door and it would be OK.

I ended up doing that, but then also trashed the latch and hook and got a new one, which I repositioned. It seems like the issue is that the back of the cabinet is warped and putting the whole box out of square. The bottom right edge was starting to pull the nails out a little bit so I removed them, drilled pilot holes and used screws to try to pull it back to square. I put some wood filler in the old holes and gave the whole thing a fresh coat of yellow paint. It is now looking and working better than ever!