h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Everyone has heard of Stonehenge. Most people have heard of Woodhenge. But few people have heard of Brickhenge, let alone seen it. To the handful of folks here who have heard the story before, I apologize, but there will be an update at the end.

To set the scene, once upon a time there was an old rundown apartment building directly across from the library. It was small, containing only six apartments, four at the front and two at the rear. These were very low-rent places and so attracted the chronically unemployed. I won’t go into all of the problems we had with the tenants over the years, but they were considerable. We finally became so frustrated that we purchased the building and bulldozed it down. It is now a parking lot.

At one point three of the front apartments were occupied by members of the same family, BH1 in apartment 1, his mother and brother (BH2) in apartment 2, and two cousins (BHs3&4) in apartment 3. Apartment 4 was occupied by the girlfriend and infant daughter of BH1. The two rear apartments contained chums of the cousins. It was one harmonious hillbilly haven.

The slumlord lived across town and sometimes gave BH1 and 2 odd jobs, paid under the table, naturally. Well, one afternoon I had to go out front for something and noticed the guys unloading some bricks from an old radio flyer red wagon. It turns out that Slumlord had convinced them to disassemble an old barbecue in his back yard and take the bricks in lieu of money. I didn’t think much of it since they were known scroungers, making the rounds of the dumpsters in town, including mine.

A few days later BH1 came into the library and made a bee line for the history section. He couldn’t find what he wanted and wound up in my office as usual, needing assistance. It seems he was interested in Stonehenge. Naturally he couldn’t spell it and wouldn’t have found information on it anyway because he was looking in the American history section, but I digress. I was pleased that he actually wanted to read about something other than guns, gun dogs and vampires. I found him a book with lots of photographs and drawings and sent him on his way.

You can imagine my astonishment a few days later when I carried a sweet little old lady’s books to her car for her (it’s a small town and we do things like that) and noticed BHs 1,2, 3,& 4 constructing an eerily familiar-looking circle in front of the apartment building. BH1, referring to his library book, was in charge of placement and the others were setting up the bricks.

I had to go across the street and watch. I couldn’t help myself. I learned that the original intent had been to construct a pyramid, only they didn’t have enough bricks. So, since what they wanted was to create a ‘power spot’ where they could meditate and absorb ‘vibrations’, they decided on a magic circle. Surprisingly, they did a fair job, and it was clearly recognizable. I dubbed it Brickhenge, which they loved, not realizing I was making fun of them.

Brickhenge remained in place for several weeks. Due to the scarcity of bricks, it wasn’t a large circle. There was only room for one of them at a time to sit inside it and vibrate. Mom even gave it a try now and then. She had so much trouble getting up from the ground that they brought out one of those old chrome and plastic kitchen dinette chairs popular in the 50s for her to sit in. Eventually all of them started using the chair instead of sitting on the ground. It had to be rebuilt twice, due to kids kicking the bricks over. My staff and I thoroughly enjoyed peering out the windows at them, pointing our fingers and guffawing. The residents of the apartment became Brickhengers and have remained so to us until this day.

The most serious (and one of the most amusing) incidents happened shortly before the final demise of Brickhenge. BH1 and Girlfriend got into an argument because she wanted to feed the baby inside the circle, which he was occupying, deep in meditation. He hit her and twisted her arm badly enough to sprain it. She called the police and had him ceremoniously hauled off to jail. I say ceremoniously because he insisted on being handcuffed inside the circle, saying that the vibrations would make the police believe him instead of Girlfriend. As soon as the police car left, Mom, foregoing the chair, dropped to her knees inside the circle and prayed for his deliverance.

While BH1 was in the slammer, (none of them could afford bail), Slumlord came over and reclaimed the bricks. My chief source of entertainment was gone. Brickhenge was no more. Not long afterward, the apartment was no more. I stood at the window in triumph watching the bulldozers do their job.

Sadly Girlfriend was killed in an automobile accident a year or so later, after the two had split up. The baby was put into care, which was clearly the best thing for the poor little thing. BH1 was so distressed over losing the baby that he tried unsuccessfully to get her back two or three times. He did secure visitation rights, which was better than nothing. So, he decided to write a play about the evils of the Division of Family Services. (He had written a play about Viet Nam earlier and secured permission to put it on at one of the city parks on Independence Day, complete with parade, but that’s another story entirely.) The play was finished but to my knowledge has never been performed. He wasn’t able to round up any actors. I suggested, out of the goodness of my heart, that he write a one man show instead and perform it himself.

Mom still comes in to use the computer lab. She chats with men in prison a lot. Her online name is Sexy Angel. If any of you are ever in prison and are contacted by Sexy Angel, please run as fast as your chains and manacles will allow.

I hadn't heard of the Brickhengers before. So. How tall were the "stones"? I'm thinking they were about the size of the ones on Spinal Tap's stage. Was it in danger of being crushed by a dwarf?

They used regular house bricks. The highest spot was about a foot. It was serioiusly silly looking.

*has read the story before but not with so much detail*

Hyp, did it look a little like this?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjshoreman/5858926084/

I'd forgotten about the brickhengers...mentally, I had pictured a bigger edifice, but your description seems apt to what I imagined, somehow.

What comes through your story is the utter, gormless sincerity of the brickhengers.

And their initiative!

You know Hyp, this may be exactly how Stonehenge came into being. Well not exactly since there were no library books back then. They'd have to borrow a bard with a choral blueprint.

SC, it looked very much like that. I think it was a bit larger than the one in the photo. And it had some single 'standing stones' here and there.

They were sincere about it, no doubt about that. But they were always going off on some tangent or other, which made it difficult to take anything they did seriously. BH1 was extremely gullible. He was always being taken by those work at home schemes. He'd come over all excited about how much money he was going to make. We all knew he was going to spend money, not make any. Spend money he couldn't afford to lose.

has anyone seen the replica stonehenge in odessa, texas? we visited it a few years ago its about 70% size but is apparently a working model-the shadows fall on the right stones on solstices etc. my friends christened it brick henge as all the stones have straight cut edges. def worth a look if you're in the area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_replica_%28Odessa,_Texas%29

When thinking of Brickhenge, it occurs to me that the people in this video might be interested in the project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLvtoKZfxY

(Yep, that's Data with the worm-farm story.)

That is a lot larger than the Little DooDah brickhenge. Very interesting. There is a circle, can't remember what they call it, in a field along I-40 made out of old cars. Near Amarillo, I think.

I loved Night Court.

It's not a circle... just a straight line. It's the Cadillac Ranch http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220

Oops. Not a circle. In the words of Emily Latella, "Never mind."

There is one on the North side of the Mighty Columbia River . A nice drive across the river and east from my town of Portland,Oregon .
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/wa-stonehenge.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrellwyatt/4491774995/
http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/stonehenge.html

I like that one. Very nice.

Now I want a stone circle in my back yard. Or a maze. Something interesting.

Only just read this... I'd forgotten about Brickhenge, you paint such a wonderful picture.

Thanks. I hesitated to do it since so many of my friends had already heard the story. Bu it's one of those gems that almost cry out for telling.

This one passed me by in November - I'm glad it made the front page