THE HOMEWORK TUBES STORY
From one tube in a garage to 2.4 miles of tubes across the world.
It all started in 1964 on Blossom Hill Road in Los Gatos, California, when retired industrial plumber and amateur dog psychiatrist Sam Grant purchased a vacant fruit packing warehouse and had what he later called "the only good idea I ever had."
Sam had noticed that his own kids did their homework faster when they were inside the large drainage pipes he stored in his yard. He couldn't explain it. Neither could his wife. Their pediatrician said, "I don't think that's true." That was good enough for Sam.
He installed 340 feet of interconnected polyethylene tubes inside the warehouse, placed small desks and battery-powered lamps at various junctions, and opened the doors to the neighborhood. He charged 25 cents per child. Within a week, he had a line around the block. Within two weeks, a second tube had to be added after a child got wedged at a junction for forty-five minutes during peak homework hours. The incident — later known internally as "The First Wedging" — led to the adoption of wider-gauge tubes, which remain the Homework Tubes standard to this day.
By 1978, there were three locations in the Bay Area. By 1992, Homework Tubes had gone national, expanding to twelve states and introducing the Tube Tutor™ intercom system. The original Los Gatos warehouse on Blossom Hill Road is still open — though the tubes are much nicer now, and they've replaced the battery-powered lamps with actual electricity.
