The Folk Art Messenger: The Drive to Create When he retired from the railroad in 1976, his wife, Mary, was still working. "Don't put any more beer cans on this house!" she told him every day before leaving, to no avail. He literally upholstered the house in beer cans and used other parts to create curtains, mobiles, fences, sculptures, windmills and wind chimes. (The Milkovisch marriage was one of the strongest and best, and to this day Mary takes as much pleasure in the Beer Can House as anyone.)