This past Saturday morning I ran into my friend Linda Carlson. I joked with her about how I always think of her whenever someone in Buzzy’s Country Store comments on the Larkin Desk that is stationed behind the counter. Here’s why I think of Linda:
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Pam and I purchased the desk several years ago at a yard sale from the estate of Mrs. O’Day who lived at the end of Harry James Road. I knew Mrs. O’Day from when I was a kid because she was a good friend to Leola Price who once lived right across from Buzzy’s Country Store.
After purchasing the desk at the yard sale, Pam and I had Teeney Wible re-do it. When he returned the desk, he informed us that it was a Larkin and a nice piece of furniture (picture to the right is one I found online.)
With the desk restored and refinished, I then positioned it behind the Store counter, just below the cigarettes. A few weeks afterwards, Linda and her husband Dave were in Buzzy’s and Linda immediately recognized and commented on the desk as being a Larkin. I thought that it was pretty cool that she recognized it as such and was the first of my Buzzy friends and visitors to comment on it as being a Larkin.
Through the years then, the desk has frequently been a conversation piece for various Buzzy visitors who recognize and comment on it. Just this past Saturday, a few hours after my conversation with Linda, a young lady was in the Store and said “Wow, that’s a really nice Larkin. I have one just like it that my grandmother gave me.” I smiled and of course thought of Linda.
The story behind the Larkin Desk has an interesting history in that John Larkin started off his career selling soap and then began making furniture to give away as a reward for buying the soap (click here.) Hence, the reason it is sometimes referred to as a “Larkin Soap Desk.”
I was unable to find any songs about Larkin or for that matter any desks. However I did manage to locate this great poem about a guy who breaks into a school to steal a desktop. Trust me, the poem is better than it sounds from that description of it (click here.)
There is also this video about someone else’s grandmother passing along a Larkin: