Then somebody told me about a shop in Roxbury where they let people come in on Saturdays and use the machinery. There was one trained woodworker in the shop, but the rest were learning woodworking from books and by trial - and - error and sharing their knowledge. Mostly they were Harvard and MIT graduates who had decided to do something alternative, who wanted to work with their hands. They werent coming from any woodworking experience. But it was a very well - equipped shop. I started working there, and I learned things bit by bit as I needed to know them. It was so much fun that I kept on doing it. For me, going into furnituremaking wasnt a conscious decision. It just evolved. This was New Hamburger Cabinetworks? Yes. It was a true co - op, a very socialist system. We shared responsibility for everything; we would have weekend - long meetings and talk about how we should work and what the social context of what we were doing should be. I didnt have the really strong political bent that everybody else did —I just wanted to be making things and this was a place to do it.