Bob also had a picture framing business out of his home, and that kept him pretty busy, except when he was building his very own color television from a Heathkit (can you imagine that!). He was into a lot of things and was a pretty interesting character as a result.
Anyway, one day he got a call from a friend at P&W Industries, a scrap metal processing company in downtown Covington. They had pulled a huge safe from a building being demolished in New Orleans, and it was just too ornate and in good condition to just melt down for scrap. They wanted to know if Bob wanted it. He did.
The company loaded it on a forklift and carried it from the plant on Jefferson Avenue (where the new courthouse is now) over to his house several blocks away. The safe must have weighed a ton (literally). So they lowered it into his carport, and he began work on fixing it up. First call went to a locksmith to see if they could get it open. They got it open and, surprise, there was nothing in it.
But Bob painted it, managed to get it into his house, and enjoyed using it for storing stuff and just to show off. It was grand old business safe four to five feet tall, painted black with gold trim. It was truly a work of art. I suspect that some longtime business in the New Orleans commercial district had used it for decades. Now Bob had rescued it from being turned into scrap metal. You had to see it to appreciate it. Here's a 1970's picture of Bob and his new old safe.
