Steve Gold and I were good friends, mainly because of love for old air meters. He would stop and see me everytime he passed through St. Louis, MO.
Steve never married until he reached his 40s, then a year or two later he was diagnosed with cancer, he died a short time later in 2004.
He was originally from the Lancing, MI area, and he had long time friend from Lancing who had a big time antique/classic car restoration business in Florida.
After Steve's death, the friend was asked by the widow to liquidate all the stuff that was in the 5 buildings. She also gave him my name, and he asked me to come up and help sort out the air meters.
Steve didn't restore much, but he did have some cars and pumps that he had purchased already restored.
He had:
Over 100 air meters and towers.
Two 50s T-Birds, I help load one on a trailer while I was there.
5 or 6 rare Oldsmobiles from the 60s & 70s.
A nice Jag.
Probably close to 50 or more early curb pumps.
About 10 hard to find display gas pumps.
A complete collection of Route 66 road signs, including the almost impossible to find Kansas.
A large sign from a motel that was once on R-66.
A complete small service station, that was probably a Wathams.
I did not get to see the globes, they were in the locked basement of the house on the property.
Old bikes, scales, signs, I could go on forever.
Steve wasn't much for organization, one half of a air tower might be in one building and the other half in another building.
The locals had heard about the sale and one by one they were stopping in, mostly were old car guys.
I purchased over $5000 worth items (mostly air), only because that was all I had to spend.
Little by little I heard about different purchases. I knew Cheese had purchased something, and someone from cental Illinois purchased the remaining air towers at a greatly reduced price that what I had been quoted.
The man who was selling all of the stuff (wish I could remember his name) was doing this for the widow, I believe he received a commission, but he also spent a great deal of time away from his business, so toward the end things got cheaper because he couldn't stay there forever.
In my opinion, it should have been turned over to Matthews, given national exposure, and I feel much more would have been gotten from a auction.
I dedicated my Air Meter Identification book to Steve Gold.
If you like to look at pictures of shows and auctions see this page of my website:
http://www.petrolianacollectibles.com/picture%20album.htmI also have a vidio of the 1988 Iowas Gas.
Jack Sim
