BBB Destination - Alamo Heights
Next time you're down near San Antonio, check out Barney Smith's passion for art ... a very unusual kind of art that keeps the 82-year-old spry. From the outside, the Toilet Seat Museum looks like a giant outhouse. And, Barney Smith is king of the thrones.
Over the past 35 years, the retired master plumber has made almost 700 toilet toppers. A few take your breath away. Others are like a trip to the dentist, and some are truly frightening. It all started with antlers.
"My dad and I would go hunting and get a little buck," says Smith. "I would cut its horns off, and I picked up a toilet seat one day, a good lid, and I put my horns on that and hung it up. I said, 'Well, I like the idea of that becoming a wall plaque.'"
So it began. But the first wooden wonder to actually become a museum piece was made with dog tags. Smith promised his wife he would stop making toilet seat plaques at number 500. Since I started out with dog tags, I need to fix some dogs on there," he says. "I put that at number 500. That's the one that I was supposed to quit at … But I didn't. And, I've been in the doghouse ever since."
That's because his wife of 64 years thinks his hobby is a load of hooey, but not everybody in the family sees it that way.
Smith is "semi-famous" because about 1,000 visitors go to see the museum annually. He gets his inspiration from just about anywhere -- his life, pop culture and even current events. And there's no real end in sight. Smith has lots of ideas waiting in shoeboxes.
There's one little thing Smith really wants, but doesn't have. It belonged to his wife. "She had gallstone surgery. I did get her IVs and everything that pertained to her surgery," Smith says. "I've got that on a toilet seat, but not the gallstones … She's got them hidden from me.
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Over the past 35 years, the retired master plumber has made almost 700 toilet toppers. A few take your breath away. Others are like a trip to the dentist, and some are truly frightening. It all started with antlers.
"My dad and I would go hunting and get a little buck," says Smith. "I would cut its horns off, and I picked up a toilet seat one day, a good lid, and I put my horns on that and hung it up. I said, 'Well, I like the idea of that becoming a wall plaque.'"
So it began. But the first wooden wonder to actually become a museum piece was made with dog tags. Smith promised his wife he would stop making toilet seat plaques at number 500. Since I started out with dog tags, I need to fix some dogs on there," he says. "I put that at number 500. That's the one that I was supposed to quit at … But I didn't. And, I've been in the doghouse ever since."
That's because his wife of 64 years thinks his hobby is a load of hooey, but not everybody in the family sees it that way.
Smith is "semi-famous" because about 1,000 visitors go to see the museum annually. He gets his inspiration from just about anywhere -- his life, pop culture and even current events. And there's no real end in sight. Smith has lots of ideas waiting in shoeboxes.
There's one little thing Smith really wants, but doesn't have. It belonged to his wife. "She had gallstone surgery. I did get her IVs and everything that pertained to her surgery," Smith says. "I've got that on a toilet seat, but not the gallstones … She's got them hidden from me.
Source