I trespassed on Russell Morash's property

In 2005 I learned the secret location of Norm Abram’s New Yankee Workshop. On August 30th that year I snuck onto the property and took hastily and poorly composed photos of the workshop’s iconic sliding door.

At the time of this discovery I was writing for a now defunct blog, The New Wookiee Workshop. It was started by guy in Texas who runs two major Star Wars fan sites. Like me he was a woodworker and a fan of Norm Abram’s show The New Yankee Workshop produced by Russell Morash. I do not remember how I connected with him nor why he asked me to help him update the blog.

Mr. Morash died last week. He was the creator and producer of icon public broadcasting shows at WGBH in Boston. He gave the world The French Chef with Julia Child, This Old House with Bob Vila and Norm Abram, The Victory Garden, and of course The New Yankee Workshop.

It was a simple task to determine where the workshop likely was. It was not as easy in 2005 to confirm the location. Google Earth was released earlier that year, but not popular or accessible yet. The blog owner purchased aerial imagery of the address which he shared with us. Somewhere in my attic I have a 8x10 image of that arial photo in a frame. He also sent me a poster sized version that is still in a roll up there.

I drove 30 minutes from my apartment in Cambridge to the suspected address. It was a busy country road. I rode past a dozen times according to the email from my blackberry while casing the joint. The siding of the house was the right color but there was no way to see the back yard. I decided to come back again.

The next week, on a Tuesday, I drove back with work’s fancy digital camera. I parked at a business across the street that had property adjacent to the house in question. It was August in New England. I draped a sweatshirt over my arm concealing the camera and walked across with purpose.

Eighteen years ago me was nervous. Today’s me would not have cared if he was caught. Doesn’t it sound like a good way to meet Norm if he were there?

Pushing my way through small trees that divided the two properties I spied the door. Norm’s sliding door he greeted us from every episode. I took three photos from the woods and then stumbled onto the lawn in front of the door. The door. I took several more shaky photos and burst my way back through to the other side. I cannot find the second set of photos in any of my backups.

I told a work friend what I had done. He seemed concerned that I was took a day off of work to stalk a semi-celebrity. I emailed another close friend excitedly who did not share my enthusiasm for discovering this middling secret.

No one was interested, except my fellow Norm bloggers. More succinctly everyone I told was either unimpressed or worried for me. I stalked Mr. Morash and Norm himself.

Years later I had drinks with Ray Park, who played Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. I have met other Star Wars related celebrities too. Yet, this remains the most fan boy thing I have engaged in.

Can you hear me squeeing still?