By John Gilstrap
I have been blessed with nice offices my entire professional life. Not that I’ve always had an office job, or that my office jobs didn’t take me out into the field for many days out of the year, but when I was in town, in headquarters, I always had a door and walls. In several of my Big Boy jobs, I could look beyond my door to see other toiling in the cubical farm, but I’ve never had to endure the challenge of trying to concentrate in a crowd.
Ninety percent of the time, my door remained open, especially in my true safety engineering days, working at the explosives plant, because the open door encouraged drop-ins. “Hey, John, there’s a problem, I think, down at Building 240 . . .” On the flip side, the open door allowed me to catch in the hallway that person I needed to talk to who was never in his own office.
If my office door was closed–or is closed today–it’s a rare enough event that everyone knows I need to be alone. Back in the day, it could have been because of a personnel issue or a classified project, but now it’s because I’m in the Zone, or on a phone call or doing a YouTube video or Zoom meeting.
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I like comfort and I like my things. My stuff. Don’t get me wrong. I can be productive in a hotel room or sitting at a bar or in a coffee shop, but to feel at home, I want to feel special in my office space.
The office furniture I’d had for the past fifteen years or so was designed for a different time and for different priorities. My desk had a big cabinet for my tower computer and a slide out tray for my keyboard along with chases for a few cords. If I wanted to write with pen and paper–which I frequently do–I merely slid the keyboard into its slot and worked on the desk space. None of this affected the music I was listening to from the Bose CD player on the bookshelf.
Now, my laptop is my only computer. The keyboard tray is still the proper typing height, but I could no longer slide the tray in without closing the lid on the computer, which was also the source of the music or white noise I was listening to, not to mention the gateway to the internet research I needed to take notes on as I wrote by hand. It just didn’t work for me anymore, and after the move to West Virginia, the furniture didn’t really fit the space.
So, I designed myself a new office.
I like dark colors and I like the look of the hard surfaces. My old office provided just one horizontal surface and it was hard to access if I wanted to do anything by hand,. Here, the wrap-around design allows me to swing my chair around and have immediate access to more desk.
But let’s talks about some of the stuff.
This little guy never had a name but he was my childhood Teddy bear. One of my most prized possessions, he got me through some tough times.
On October 19, 1983 at 3:10pm, a contaminated batch of propellant for the Navy’s Standard Missile Program exploded about 400 yards from my office. The pressure wave blew in my window and collapsed my ceiling. This piece of shrapnel missed me.
While I was researching SIX MINUTES TO FREEDOM, President Bush invited Kurt Muse and me to Houston so that we could interview him for 20 minutes. We stayed for and hour and a half.
I was invited to teach a writing class to the military and civilians at Guantanamo. While there, I was interviewed by the base radio station, where I got a Fidel Castro bobblehead. The station motto is, “Rockin’ in Fidel’s Backyard.”
I’ve been trading Jonathan Grave challenge coins for a while now–long enough to put together a nice collection. Every one of those represents service to the nation or the community. It warms my heart to look at them.
A little daily encouragement from Dad.
And now, finally, time to go back to work.
And so neat, too! Every office I’ve had starts off neat, then stuff piles up on desks and credenzas and file cabinets and the floor, but somehow I can find what I want (most of the time). Every six months or so I throw everything into a box for sorting later, and have a clean desk for a week.
Nice layout and what a wonderful group of things to surround you with inspiration and gratitude!
On a side note, your post reminds me of something I was thinking about earlier. You mentioned no longer having a tower computer. I think I must be the only person on the earth who still prefers a tower computer over a laptop. They’ve phased out the towers at work and moved us to laptops, but I still prefer my good ‘ole fashioned tower pc at home. If I write away from home, I use pen & paper.
You’re not the only one. Me too. But husband is threatening to buy me a Mac for Christmas. 😔
I have two towers and a laptop. I seldom use the laptop. One of the towers is for writing and the other is for things like Corel and Adobe Design, but mostly for research. You’re not alone. 😊
Laptops passed towers in sales about 10 years ago. My children do 70% of their work on iPads or their phones. They think I am a dinosaur for liking real keyboards.
Like you, I’m most productive in my own dedicated office space.
I have an all in one computer and a desk with a ‘return’ (at least I think that’s what it’s called.) Flat surfaces attract clutter, but once a week, I clear things (translation–stack them) so my housekeeper can get rid of any accumulated dust. Every few months, I take the stacks, give them a glance, and toss most into our recycle box. Amazing how much I don’t need after it’s been marinating for a while.
John, when can I move in?
Like JSB my desk is covered with papers, files, books, notebooks. My fastidious husband shudders every time he walks by. I sort it out every few months and that too lasts about a week. On the upside it’s filled with bookshelves, 2 tall window that look out at a stand of trees and has a sky light. I consider the windows “writing tools””.” I spend a lot of time “musing” through them.”
John, I love your office, and the objects you chose to have around you say a lot about your character. Good man.
I could not write in an office that pristine. Like others have commented, I have piles on every surface. (None on the floor because I’d probably trip over them.) It’s a constant source of frustration for my husband, who threatens to go in there when I’m away from home and ‘shovel it out’ which would trigger an instant divorce, which he knows, so he so far just mutters about it.
I love how you’ve created an office space that suits you so well. I think that’s key.
In my case, at the moment my writing office looks like a mad scientist’s lair, given all the astronomy gear in it, along with a ton of books.
Beautiful office, John. Wonderful memories all around.
I envy you that wraparound desk. Although I have a large desk, it has to accommodate two laptops. One of them lives on a pull-out ledge so there’ll be enough room on the desktop for the other laptop, the inbox, the to-do list stand, the coffee cup holder, the white board (leaning against the wall), and a few other odds and ends that take up room. 🙂
Best wishes for many fruitful years in your beautiful oasis!
Gorgeous, John, and my favorite color green! My desk is a similar set up, the u-shape with tall shelves on one side. Extremely functional, and shifted from my office in one house to this house beautifully.
But I’m with JSB on the piles. Just stuff, everywhere. Afraid I’m of the “I’ll just put it there for now” school. But…I knew what was there. In the old, smaller office, my husband would come in needing something, take one look and mutter “Never mind.” I’d ask him what he was looking for, then pull it out of pile 3, halfway down. Drove him mad.
Nice office, John! Looks like a great place to write more books so I can read them…hint, hint!
My office space was originally a living space we added on when my Mom moved in with us. It’s a good size, has its own closet and bathroom, and windows on the east and north side. I love it.
Messy? My space is a combo of tidy and messy…depends on where you look. Kinda like my brain.
Sure glad you didn’t get clocked by that shrapnel.
Have a great day!
Owing to a computer failure and a sale at Dell, I now run three screens although the pair of 24″ are the main ones. The phone is usually on the bottom one. Yes, my laptop is my main phone at work. I use a fountain pen most days for writing writing. It is old school, but I love it. My walls are mostly pictures of my children. My ‘ego’ wall has a few things very special. I am a pilot. My degree is in aeronautics. I picture of my license is next to my diploma. Below that is a picture of the lab for flight VII. The lab is also called a Cessna 310. Also on the wall is a business card from a grade school classmate. You remember in elementary school sitting in alphabetical order? I sat next to Virginia for a few years. She was inducted into our high school hall of fame a few years ago. Her card is sort of plain. Cream paper with a gold eagle in the middle and her name and title. United States Ambassador to Ghana. She just retired after 30 years with the State Department.