Sundays at the Garage Analysis

Kimbell describes a typical Sunday Vermonters spend down at the garage. He emphasizes the idea of “welding”, “fixing”, “repainting”, and “digging”, In order to stress the importance of building one’s life. He also mentions “sighting a gun” and “trying to charge a battery” in the hopes of painting a picture of rugged individualism, frontier living, and self dependence. Kimbell even highlights the practical necessities for everyday living and survival by including the smaller pleasures in life such as a
“non-dairy creamer” and a “small refrigerator”, while representing the specific implements used in building a life, “washers”, “bolts”, and “screws”, the simple tools needed to create a sturdy foundation.
The garage’s owner, Tom, uses his garage as a safe-haven and sanctuary, which offers tranquility and even allows for guilty pleasures of life with the assistance of his “Nordic-looking pinups” and “beer”; something the local Methodist church doesn’t exactly offer.

The Methodist church, or “the other spot”, is where the other local Vermonters assemble every
Sunday morning. In the process of describing this “other spot” Kimbell expresses the idea of religion posing as a staple of the lifestyle of the locals. The church epitomizes a common place where the community gathers, although “the congregation might be short a farmer or two”, suggesting that it’s completely typical and natural for the crowd to be absent, the only exceptional days being “Old
Homeday” and “Christmas Eve” where the services are packed”, expressing that celebratory events accumulate a larger audience than the routine Sunday morning service. He then continues to compare both establishments, stating that both places “offer coffee… of similar quality”, perhaps also suggesting that both places offer lessons and morals of “similar quality”. Kimbell furthers his comparison by adding the fact that the church offers “leftover birthday cake” something Tom’s garage doesn’t offer,