Word: harper
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...around for a few minutes, then asks, "How about if I take that deer over there and pay you the difference?" The animal in question is a buck, 4 ft. high, with a brown paint job and an impressive rack of gleaming metal antlers. "That'd be fine," says Harper. He calls his sons Doug and Dale and son-in-law Russell Armentrout out of the work shed to reclaim the Virgin Mary and wrestle 300 lbs. of concrete venison onto the truck...
...chance that the farmer would have failed to locate something he liked was approximately zero: on a mere 1 1/2 acres, Harper's Lawn Ornaments, just north of Harrisonburg, Va., has one of the largest selections anywhere of items for people who shudder at the thought of a naked lawn. The place is crowded with hundreds of objects designed to satisfy every yearning: there are pedestals holding colored glass balls that resemble huge Christmas-tree ornaments, 6-ft.-tall ranch-style windmills, plastic pink flamingos -- and some items that are downright tasteless, notably a painted wooden figure that depicts...
...concentrated up front, near the highway, the enormous side yard is filled with concrete birdbaths, statues (including Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi, gnomes, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck), decorative paving stones, planters and fountains, all neatly stacked in piles up to 6 ft. high. Most impressive is Harper's collection of concrete animals. He has 20 types of deer alone, ranging in size from a miniature fawn up to the just departed buck, and 18 kinds of frogs. There are also lifelike rabbits, geese, chickens, lambs, foxes, crocodiles, armadillos, toy poodles and blue jays. On a larger scale, Harper features...
...first," he remembers, "business was slow, but it's just sort of gone wild." The boys began helping out when they were five or six, and as they grew up and got more involved, Betty specialized in decorating the concrete. When Harper built the shop, which is about a 15-second commute from their red brick, one-story house, Betty got a corner, where she uses an air compressor to spray-paint the animals with automotive-grade enamel. Almost from the beginning, says Harper, "I've been saying I want to slow down. But then I order more molds." That...
...long it is back in again in certain regions of New York City and Los Angeles. He is Ray Judd, a colleague from the days when the concrete business was populated by honorable men. "Ray had a place up near Luray, but we didn't used to compete," Harper reminisces. "We even traded molds. Nowadays the competition won't even tell you where they buy theirs. I think it's time to get out of this business." But then he drags Ray outside to inspect a new figure, a massive concrete hound balanced on its hind legs. The front paws...