TheY2K Barrel

Dave Draper

The idea for the TY2KB project , which stands for "Traveling Year 2000 Barrel," hatched from a mini Letterhead meet fund raiser I attended back 1998. One of the letterheads brought a small oil barrel to that meet which was full of signatures and sign art. At the time I thought to myself what a wonderful conversation piece to have setting around my home with flowers growing out of it, or made into a stool by adding a seat to the top. I wanted one! So, I set out to make my own barrel of signatures.

The next week I was lettering a huge track hoe digger for a local excavation company. When I gathered up my mess and took it to their dumpster, there was this cute little blue oil barrel crying out to me to be saved. I dug it out, cleaned it up and put in my garage. Another year passed.

Then one sunny spring day, Steve Shortreed and his lovely wife Barb were knocking on my door. What a surprise, the owner of the Letterhead Web Site is at my home! While we sat and watched the paint peeling off my porch, I showed him the barrel, and told him it would be neat if we could get all the regulars who support the Letterhead Web Site to sign it! ( I’m sure he gave me one of those looks to see if I was mentally balanced )

There was so much uncertainty back in 1999 about our computers crashing when the big ball in Times Square came down to start off the new year 2000. Everyone was talking about Y2K this and that. Bingo! Light bulbs went off in my brain! We’ll call it the TY2KB!

There was huge support from the regulars at the Letterhead Web Site. The barrel was destined to travel from shop to shop by mail or taken directly from one shop to another. That took a lot of organization. TY2KB made a tour of the Midwest, on to Oklahoma, down to the glorious South, then decided into retire in sunny Florida! It collected so much art and so many signatures, it just couldn’t contain them all. Even the inside of the barrel was filled with odd objects from its travels, which took 1 year.

It was fun watching its progress from shop to shop. We all had a good time and made some new friends in far away places. Now it will find its way to a good home and maybe someday it will rest in a museum, a tribute to the first of a kind, an Internet / shop to shop Letterhead Meet. This project could have never been successful with out the cooperation of all involved and especially the Letterhead Web Site Bull Board.

We thank you all,

Dave & Cindy Draper
Draper the Signmaker
Bloomington Illinois USA

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