Tat’s Bizarre Travels

This week I traveled deep into Ohio to see the giant baskets. More specifically the Longaberger baskets. There were three in all to see, but by the time I hit Dresden I was tired and cranky and there was some sort of street fair closing up so I passed. Now kicking myself for doing so. I totally should have pushed through the vendors closing up and visited the house sized basket.

Newark, OH - My first basket stop was the Longaberger home office. It seems that the Longaberger corporation, having housed their corporate headquarters in the basket in Dresden, needed a larger home office. To accommodate this need they built a monolith to basket consumerism that is so gigantic it takes your breath away. After all, how may times do you drive down a highway and see a towering woven basket? Seriously, if the construction companies I worked for in the past had ever built anything like this I would have stayed.

I loved it when I rounded the corner on highway 16 and saw the basket towering in front of me. The home office is 7 stories tall (I got this info by counting the windows), all tan and has two enormous handles. It’s awesome. I walked all around the giant building, and it’s weird, when you’re up close it just looks like a building with a weird skin as the concrete moves in and out of the wall to simulate weaving. And on the rim of the basket, at the very top of the building, is a massive brass plate that says “Longaberger” which is completely to scale. If they made a giant real basket for any reason than this would be what it looks like.

I totally gotta get a job in a giant object.

Frazeysburg, OH - Next stop was the Longaberger Homestead. It’s a bizarre cross between a religious cult and outlet mall. There are several buildings that sell everything from cloths to housewares. Oh, and some baskets, but they’re harder to find than you might anticipate. There’s a restaurant that serves “home style” food, a Starbucks that sells “corporate style” coffee, the factory, a memorial, and, of course, the giant apple basket. If you said the apple basket was the only interesting thing in the 20 mile radius between the giant office building basket and the giant apple basket, you would be correct.

The basket is modeled after the original apple baskets that were sold to orchards in Ohio. It’s very well done. Unlike the home office it’s built out of wood, not concrete, and is a very realistic basket. It’s filled with giant apples as well. The sign in front says that it’s a great photo op. Not surprisingly people posed and shot pictures, including yours truley. But then again that’s why I go to these places in the first place.