Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion NEW REQUEST, LET'S GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER.

At 2:00 in th morning, after having won most of my dart matches, and having probably more than the local police say I should't have been drinking (I did arrive home safely), I find it very easy to express my feelings. I just replied to a post about a book that I recommended you all read, then because of the way I replied I got the feelings I really don't know you guys.
I really don't want to know what you did in high school, but if you are like me, something happened to you thet lead you into this hobby.
Just to explain what happened to me, even at an early age I was as collector (stamps, coins) and after the Army (in 1958) I became a picker, I just didn't know I had a name. In a barn in 1958 trying to by a Henderson Motorcycle, in a lady's bsement where I did buy a 1916 Harley-Davidson.
Guys, go back, don't tell us what happened last year, give us stories, maybe is wasn't finding a gas pump, maybe is was like where I found two Model A's and a Overland Touring car in a garage in Southern Missouri.
Why am I asking for this, it is just to get us away from all the negative stuff we have been reading about here lately, let's tell each other about the good time we remember, even it it happend in the 1980's.

Jack Sim

Man I feel like we need to be sitting in a large circle in chairs like other addiction groups!
My (addiction) started around 1980 with simple things like go fast cars. Then I needed some signs for the garage so I would go to the flea markets and pick up some road signs. That led to oil and gas signs, gas pumps, coke machines and on and on.

I remember family and friends thought I was crazy for collecting this stuff, they just dont get it to this day. I honestly thought back then I was the only one that collected this stuff, boy I found out later how wrong I was.

(standing up) My name is Ron and I am addicted to this stuff!

I saw a parking meter at a local yard sale. Thought to myself,"How cool is that!" Now I have lost track of how many I have. Driving through town my Wife says, "Didn't you see that Chevron sign?". A quick u-turn and now I have Chevron signs on and in my shop and backyard, given to friends and traded for other signs. If your looking for a good book to read may I suggest the Bible. Good for the soul and salvation. May God bless us all.
Mike

I was raised on a Maryland tobacco farm in the fifties. Dad was a carpenter at a large Ship Yard in Baltimore and farmed on the side to make ends meet. We never had much money so had to constantly keep all the old farm machinery running with whatever means we could? We had a visible gas pump on the farm.....I was too young to recall the model nor did I care, at that time. I pumped a lot of gas thru that pump. It was always fun watching the gas fill the cylinder. As I grew older and found cars, all things revolved around that new discovery. Then came the Military in the Vietman era. Fast forward to the seventies, marriage and the love for antique furniture that my wife taught me. During our visits to shops, I came to appreciate advertising items and bought a few. Because of my fondness for old machinery, I started buying bigger stuff. Just stopping at someones house to inquire if "such and such" was for sale came as a natural progression. Never knew I was a picker until it was pointed out to me? I could have been an ax murderer so picking is much better. LOL! Paul www.severngaspumps.com

In 1984 while infield at the Carlisle Fall show picking up 2 huge 1930's Coca-Cola signs (collecting coke since 1972), I was loaded up and driving slowly towards the exit for the ride home and window shopping, looking to spend my final $100 cash.
Sure enough, I spotted a DSP 42" 1930 Texaco sign in decent shape. I asked how much....Guy says $85. Done! I was hooked!

Me being only 37 I have not seen nothing like most of you guys but I was lucky to have been born on a farm in se mo that by grandfather bought before the great depression where he had a sawmill and farmed also .Next to our farm my great uncle had a rather large salvage yard during the 70's and 80's as a kid I was always in there like kids do , a few years ago he gave me the old gas pump off his farm and that's where my ms 80 mobil special came , always have collected things but that's when I got interest into petrolina, .

What happened to the Harley.... Jack ? LOL
Dave

My wife says I am a hoarder, lol. But she doesn't want to count the number of pairs of shoes she has. I grew up on a small farm north of Kansas City. I remember in the late 50's it seemed like all my uncles had dark green Chevy pickups, beat all to hell. I grew up using old farm machinery and we had old (hand me down) furniture in the house. Always liked the old stuff, not into the brass and glass that my daughter has.
My first buy I can remember was at about age 7. Was at an auction in early May, I bought 2 crystal wine glasses for my Mom for Mother's Day. $ 1.50 for the pair, wiped me out. I have been buying and selling ever since. Have had a few old signs from the farm that I kept, but working with this friend on disposing of his collection has got me hooked in a new area. I am retired so can go out scouting a lot, just got to put them away for a few weeks before the wife sees them.

Started collecting stuff as a kid in the 60's. Rock, Stickers, Matchbooks(found the rocks and stickers when I cleaned out my parent's home. Mom must have thrown out the matches) Bought a 1970 Buick GS Stage 1 when I turned forty.
Went to an auction to buy a Buick sign. Walked in the auction room and it was filled with signs for sale. I was mesmerized and hooked! Started buying signs, sold the Buick and the rest is history.

I’m 45 but when I was young, like 9-10, we lived on the edge of town and there was a scrap iron shop close by. I rode my bike to and from school past that thing every day. People used to dump cars outside the gates at night after it was closed for the day and I would always stop and play around in the cars and started collecting the emblems off of them. Maybe a hub cap here and there, etc. Saved quiet a few from the crusher. I think that's where it started for me. My dad collected license plates and gave me his collection so I started collecting those too. Then street signs and then gas-oil and pumps, now just about anything I think is cool, exciting, or different. Jukebox, coke machine, even have an old barber’s chair in my shop. I love the nostalgia of the stuff from days past and the quality of the items and just enjoy having it around.

Pretty simple story for me... my grandfather passed away and my father & his siblings were in a hurry to clean out his house. No auction or anything of that sort. I had 1 day to get whatever I wanted to keep out of the house. I found lots of handy oilers and noticed many were Cities Service (I had not owned a single collectible petrol item at this point). I then found other Cities Service cans, receipts, pictures, smalls, and then I came across a set of Cities Service coveralls & hard hat.

Questioned my father about it and sure enough my grandfather was a Cities Service employee. Worked at the refinery in Pekin, IL. My goal is to obtain enough artifacts of Cities Service to decorate an entire corner of my garage as a tribute to my grandfather. (which means I will also need to find a vintage manikin so i can display the coveralls and hardhat appropriately )

All the other items I buy are merely decoration until they can be used as trade-bait or sold for more Cities stuff.

In 1989 I was born, so my collecting life is short at the moment.
I am 23 years old and have seen lots of collectables over the short years of my life. My family is collectors and traders. Everything from guns, coins, knives, diamonds, and antiques. If you ask me about any of these, i can tell you.

I have been trading since I was 5, grandpa taught me how to wheel&deal from a young age and we still do it to this day. I am with him everyday for the most part. Every weekend and most weekdays we trade and buy. I remember me buying old Parker Brothers shotguns at the age of 8. I purchased a 20ga Parker DHE and a local show. Most people thought it was grandpa buying it for me but a few knew it was my trading money. Now i have upgraded my collection greatly since then. I have always bought quality over quantity and it has done me well. I have built my collection gained on knowledge from others and my own experiences.

I never got into gas and oil until about a year and a half ago. Purchased a Mobilgas PPP from a local sale and that got me started. Now my Mobil and Sinclair collection builds almost daily with an influx of packages to my door. I can't stop reading up on companies and i have become more knowledgeable in this area of the collecting world. I am no expert in the field of Petroliana but I can tell about a few companies.

I am an unemployed college graduate and I still make ends meet and have time and funds to collect. I am out of debt thanks to the lessons I learned awhile ago on how to make your money work for you. I am a horse-trader and have been for the past 18+ years. If you think because I am young that i am dumb, well try me.

I was walking home after school past a antique store 25 years ago. My eyes were drawn to a Coke machine in the window. I went inside to ask how old it was and if it worked. It was a complete working Vendo 44, the price $350. Income from my part time job was $90 a month. I purchased the machine with help from my family. It took me 6 months to pay off.
3 years later I purchased a 4 foot Coke button sign for $75.

Boy how prices have changed. The last Vendo 44 machine I sold for $2800 and Coke button $700

I was 13 (1970) and just had topped off the gas tank in my Rupp Enduro mini bike at the nearby Standard oil station and as I went thru the back lot of the station I noticed this Standard Oil LDO oil sign back there. I went back inside and asked the owner if I could have it and the addiction was on as I carried it 2 blocks home and came back for the minibike. After that the owner of the Pure Oil station on the other corner nearby and I became friends and I got a few of his signs up through my high school years. Then a marriage and starting a business took me other directions but once life settled down to a nice old farm in Wisconsin the signs that had been packed away for years got hung up and the addiction of farm auctions, picking and swap meets came back to life.

It's a addiction of Love and if you stop at any paint store and ask them for a stress free color to paint your walls, they only wish they cold sell you the color of many old signs on a barn wall.....cause it's a calm summer day all year long!!!

The LDO sign has now moved indoors so the weather dosn't take any more toll on it's life but it sure looke good on the barn for all those years to remind me everyday that this is a fun addiction.

Just want to add, Great thread Jack! Your the best!

My dad was a weekend warrior dealing in antique furniture. This consisted of hitting every place that he might buy a piece,to refurbish and turn a profit. What we called junk stores are now antique shops. Married at a ripe age of 17,it seemed only natural to fill the house with antiques. So the collecting bug was somewhat inherited.
Fast forward to racecars- driving, building ,setting them up love every aspect of the sport. Well you can't be around that without petro.So long story short,I guess that how I evoled in to petro.

I've always had a strong interest in history and display layouts.I think it comes from growing up here in NM where my folks always took us to and taught us about NM history from the 1500's (??) right on up through the Santa Fe history,the Santa Fe trail,the civil was and right on into RT 66.

The product layout part comes from running a lumberyard for 20 some-odd years where I had to work out appealing and effective product layout in an effort to increase sales.Things like put complimentary dimensions close to each other and,above all,keep the place clean.

When I got into collecting gas/oil/shop stuff to go along with my old trucks it was a natural for me to go after history and the visual impact of display layouts.Another collector once asked me "what do you collect?".My answer was "I collect displays".By that I mean coordinated brand displays with a STRONG NM tie-in and a STRONG shop component to go along with the old trucks.

What I enjoy the most is when a visitor to my place becomes interested in the same things I am;an appreciation of and an interest in preserving history and the enjoyment coming from looking at eye catching display layouts.

At the tender age of 16 in 1979,after getting my first car,a 1972 Chevelle SS,I ran into a gas pump one winter day in my lil hometown station while pulling in for a fill up.Dennys Mobil..
Yup the winter of '79 was one of the biggest snow falls on record for the Chicagoland area.
I came into the station too fast & slid right into the Wayne 505 pump up on it's cement island.Almost took out the oil can display in between too.
The attendant came out & swore for an hour.They decided to remove the pump,as it was all dented & put in a new digital computer pump.Insurance paid for it.
6 mos.later I asked the owner where that pump went?..he said it's sitting out back in limbo.
After 2 days of discussions,I came home with the pump,owners manual,nozzle guts & all for $50.
My Dad thought it was the oddest thing to do.Told me I probably had a concussion form the accident..LOL.
I found a replacement door & side panel that I dented 6mos. prior.
I liked the way that pump looked & operated and made a nice pallet for it in the corner of the garage..my Dad thought I was a nut.
Sat in our garage for another 10 years,while I added other gas station items around it,as well as worked on my car.
One day in 1988 my Mom had a garage sale & someone saw the pump in our garage & asked how much,with it's S/S doors shining and all lit up.It wasn't for sale,I wasn't living there anymore but dad yelled out..$100!
Asked if we'd take $50 for it,my dad said he would and w/o asking me,(I WOULDN"T!),off it went.
I was stunned to see that corner empty one day.Dad said thieves must have gotten it,Mom laughed and told me the truth.
I'm still collecting Gas & Oil & hold a grudge against my Dad about that sale I never OK'd and told him he gave it away.

I'm a history buff and love researching the history of San Jose and the San Francisco bay area. What once was farms and orchards are now high tech and concrete. So, we lost a lot of our past.

When I was young, my friends and I would ride along with our dads to the land fills and junk yards back in the day when you could run around the working earth moving equipment without someone in an orange vest and hard hat yelling at you. We would find bike parts and build "new ones". Every now and then, we would bring home other items that were cool. Mom didn't think so and threw that stuff out when she got the chance. My buddy's dad used to work for the city roads department. We got ahold of some street signs and detour arrows. Well, when we started playing road construction crew, drivers didn't think it was as fun as we did and those items got taken away, too.

Moving forward, I started with keeping advertising pieces and signs that were taken down during construction projects. The petroliana stuff really didn't kick in until I found a Bennett 646. Now, I feel like a gas and oil zombie. But, I feel the real excitement is in the hunt. I really don't sell much but I love finding things. My wife says it's like a gambling habit. She keeps me in check, though.

I really didn't realize how big this hobby was until I really started paying attention. Fun stuff. I've met some great people and am now seeing things I never thought existed. I've also discovered how much has gone away in the name of progress.

I have been into cars since I was 12 years old, and use to work at my uncles Shell gas station during the weekends, spring break, summer & Christmas holidays.

It never occurred to me that people collected gas & oil items. In 2004, I bought an auction house and took note of how passionate some people were about advertising and gas & oil items. Not to mention the prices these items pulled.

In 2006, I sold the auction house and started collecting. I bought a double Gilbarco 96B off of e-Bay. When I picked it up, I bought a bunch more items from the seller in WA. I asked him if knew of any other gas pumps for sale. He said he knew a guy with over 120 gas pumps; but that the guy would never sell them. I asked him to introduce me to the individual.

I became good friends with the person with all the pumps. One day, he told me that he had all these pumps. I told him I knew and he stated I was the only guy that never asked to buy any. I said, that I knew they were not for sale. He had, had them in storage for over twenty years in a barn that he was renting. He had gone through a divorce and kept them and had paid a small fortune in rent over the years. He offered to sell them all to me and I bought them all. Probably, overpaid for them...But, I have no regrets.

Back in the seventh grade my mom bought me a "wind breaker" with a Ford Mustang patch over a racing stripe. I thought having a patch on my jacket was the coolest thing ever. We dealt with a Gulf station that had the "put it on my tab" when you were low on money and we kids did a huge amount of buying candy, soda, and always needing tube repair kits and using the Eco air meter to fill tires. The owner gave me a Gulf patch to go below the Mustang and a big patch for the back of my jacket. Next thing I knew the jacket was covered with patches front and back.

About 14 years ago I found a Gulf five quart can in an antique mall. I don't remember ever seeing a five quart can before, and between the memories of the Gulf station back home and my newly aquired can, I was hooked. Brady

I worked as a "Host" (bouncer) in a nightclub in Columbus, GA. in 1977 while I was finishing my 6th year of college. There was an old jukebox in the ticket booth. Later I thought that it would be cool to have an old jukebox, but I didn't know where to begin looking. I went to a book store in the mall and copied a list of resources in the back of the book. I then stared going to antique shows, auctions, flea markets etc. and began my education. It wasn't long before I began acquiring jukeboxes, vending machines, gas pumps, signs, etc.It has been a exciting and worthwhile journey and I have met some really great people and it isn't over yet...I hope.Dave

At 8 years old in 1966 I went to work with my dad to relocate his heating air store from one builing to another.I helped them move the toms candy jar and saw the fishtail coca cola calender pad holder on the wall asked if I could move it they said sure,pulled the nail out and took it over to the new building and nailed it back up by the machine.Back in 1971 at 13 years old my dad was a partime pastor of a church in centre alabama and he would go by the church on summer afternoons and I would go out back of the church and fish in the lake(lake Weiss ) one day I saw a spot down the creek where the water went down and there was alot of cans and bottles that were very old .I picked up as many bottles and cans I could and started collecting from there.I started college in 1976 went two years on a baseball scollarship took a summer time job in 1978 as a plumber joined the union went 3 years to plumbing school. 1995 when my dad died I went back to his store and took down the calender pad I had nailed up 27 years before and found the 2 toms jar took them home and put them into my collection. after 34 years in plumbing I am still working out of local 72 in Atlanta GA

Most of my early years were spent as a "gas station rat". When I was 10 I use to hang out at a local Sinclair station after school. After a while they offered me a job cleaning rest rooms, restocking oil shelves and filling pop machines each day after school. Graduated to washing cars on Saturday at a local Phillips station - cost $2.50 to hand wash the car, scrub the white walls, chammy, vacuum inside and clean the windows. Begin working at my future wifes uncles gas station when I was 13 and stayed until high school graduation. Old enough to remember the gas wars. We had four stations - one on each corner (now hard to believe) A Texaco, Phillips, Deep Rock and DX. It would get crazy - as soon as one lowered gas by a penny another would drop theirs down 2 and so on. I can still see to this day the cardboard sign at the DX station across the street advertising gas at 14 cents a gallon! Military and career took me far away from those days but little did I know that the smell of gasoline and oil running down your arm each time you would change an oil filter would leave it's mark on me for life. Started collecting 5 yrs ago after I retired. Gas pumps, signs, oil cans and lubesters now consume my time. First task each morning is to go out to the "barn" and look it all over - as a good friend once told me, "kinda makes your heart sing" just looking at this stuff.

In 2008 I finally built my garage/workshop that I'd always wanted. I began looking for unique items to hang on the walls, anything that was old & cool. Then one day soon after I was at the local auction and there was an old gas pump. I knew nothing about it, except that it said Mobilgas Special. It was old & rusty, but solid, and I just had to have it for the garage. I paid $600 for it. Within a week I heard thru the grapevine that I had paid way to much for this pump, but I shrugged it off and began taking the pump apart. Not knowing anything about restoring a pump, I just did what I thought was best. Sandblasted the entire thing, did bodywork, and painted. It actually turned out real nice. It wasn't until some time after the pump was completed that I learned this M&S 80 pump was what they call a script top, and very desirable. I've been hooked ever since.

About 12 years ago I bought a 1965 galaxie 500 that cauht my eye for my daily driver. Always enjoyed the attention it got and the smiles it brouhgt to peoples faces. 5 years ago I relocated to Nebraska and needed a place to put my machine shop. As luck would have it a lady was selling her Chevrolet dealership and retireing. I bought the building and decided I needed another old car to display in the showroom. 9 cars later I thought it would be cool to put a gas pump next to the car. It also brouhgt a lot of smiles to peoples faces and they would stop and want to talk about the cars, pump, and the old days. Given that I had the room and that the building is 60 years old it seemed like a natural to keep adding more. The rest is history as they say!

In 1968 my family bought a 100 acre farm which had been a dairy farm since the early 1900's. It had a big old barn and silos with the cow stantions still in it. We discovered the old bottle dump and would excavate the glass bottles from the dirt and line them up on shelves in an old milk room. We had books that showed the value of each bottle. I had a Honda mini bike and rode a trail that followed the old road out to the back fields. There were three 5-6 acre fields and one large 20 acre field all separated by tracts of woods. One field had an old chevy dump truck that hunters have shot full of holes and it was full of bees. We had a swamp area, pine forest and hard wood areas. We would ride our mini bikes out to this old collapsed building in the woods. There was an old truck with its steering wheel sticking up through the roof and you were surrounded by the smell of old oil and gas. I love that smell of old oil to this day. i would set home made traps and make my rounds to check my traps. I had a pony and four pigs when I was 11. We had the best tree forts and would go out in the woods for hours and our parents had no idea where we were.

My entire family has collected something for years, so it was only natural I had to start somewhere, sometime.My greatest passion is Illinois license plates, which I started collecting in 1953, when I was in high school.I stuck with that till the early 1990s, and spotted a large Phillips 66 sign behind an old bulk plant not far from my home town that was going to be torn down. The owner would not sell me that sign, but he did sell me several others he did not want. That purchase started the petro collecting, which figure, since cars have license plates, and also need gasoline to run them. I guess I started early and likely will continue till I cannot go anymore. I might add thatI have met a lot of great folks while enjoying this hobby. Good thread Jack.

Dave asked what happened to the Harley. I need to go back a little to explain what happened to it.

At age 14 I decided I wanted to be the first person in the Sim family to graduate from college. I graduated from high school exactly 60 years ago this June, but the family didn't have the money for my college. A month and a half after I graduated the fighting stopped in Korea. Realizing the only way I would ever go to college was to join the military, so I joined the Army.

I spent 3 1/2 years in the Army, getting out in July, 1958, with the idea I would use the GI bill and start college in September. But... I did something while I was in the Army that had some effect on my doing anything, I had gotten married and had a daughter. When I got out of the Army, I went to work as a Salesman for Gerber Baby Food, putting my family first.

A little over 12 months later, I decided, against my wife's feeling, my parents telling me I was crazy, etc. that I had just spent 3 1/2 years in the Army with one purpose in mind, that to go to college. So, I quit work, and applied to Penn State (at their center in Philly) to attend day school. I also applied for an apprentiship in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard (where my father worked), was accepted. I would work in the yard from 4-12, get home by 12:30, study to 3:30 in the morning, go to sleep and get up to be in class by 8 or 9 in the morning. I lived on 3-4 hours a sleep for almost 2 years.

Skipping ahead, after 2 years at Penn State, I transferred to a small college in southeast Missouri, appropately named Southeast Missouri State University. I graduated from college 50 years ago this June, exactly 10 years after I graduated from high school.

While living just west of Philly and being interested in old cars I got to know a lot of antique car owners. Not many people know this but the AACA was started by a bunch of guys who lived just west of Philly, back in 1935. One of the founders was George Hughes Sr. He was so well know in the AACAS, the high wheeler race held on Saturday afternoon in the stadium at the fall Hershey is named after him. He had passed away prior to meeting all these guys, but I did become friends with his son G. H Jr. When the Sr. passed away he left his son 13 cars that were 1910 and earlier. Jr. also had this knack about finding some very nice old cars.

Now the Harley. I went to this woman's basement, looked at the bike, it was all there, but it was rough. She also had a gramaphone for sale. I decided I would give her $20.00 for the graphone and $30.00 for the Harley, I asked her what she wanted for the two items and she said $30.00 for the gramaphone and $20.00 for the Harley.

Knowing G. H Jr. had a 1930 Studebaker Roadster, and he wanted the Harley, we traded. He had wanted $100 for the Studebaker so I basically sold the Harley for $100.00.

In reality, I shouldn't have been buying anything, I was in college, didn't have the money to restore anything, and the second child was on her way. This lead me in to picking.

Will pick up this story in a few days.

Jack

Hi Everyone! Sounds like fun! My Dad told me about the pumps he remembered in the 30's.I started collecting in 1975.I bought a Wayne 492 for 10.00 in 1976.through the next several years I bought other pumps off farms,never paying more than 100.00$ for one. Now as I approach retirement it's time to start restoration! THANKS! Jim

My Father and some of his friends were in the Hobby... As a youngster I didn't collect Baseball Cards, instead I started collecting cans, signs and smalls.... I picked up my first can (Oilzum) around 1963 or so. I still have it...

Been collecting off and on (mostly on) ever since... Lost a good portion of my items in my divorce and lost even more in a lawsuit. Because of "Life's adventures" and the fact I am cheap (not frugal, just cheap)!!!!! Most of the items I acquire are smalls....

Guess I've always been a collector at heart of some sort. Coins as a kid (and still) then sports memorabilia as a young adult. Petroliana, however, came by happenstance... Some time ago I was presented with the opportunity to purchase my dream car--a 1966 Mustang convertible. Purely as a way to accessorize my car, I sought out a 1966 road map to place in the car's glove box. Aware of the company's history in the state and being one of the predominate oil company's in the region during my childhood, I gravitated towards Conoco. As such, a 1966 Conoco road map of Colorado became the first piece in my collection, which remains mostly limited to paper/ephemera from the 1929-'69 period, along with other items of personal interest. While I grew up at the dawn of the self-service age and was a first-hand witness to the death of the full-service station, both my father and grandfather worked as service station attendants at some point in their lives.

I started off by collecting Kansas license plates as a 12 year old. I've always loved anything old or rusty and my collecting really began with my dad who also collected license plates. After I finished 3 complete collections of Kansas license plates from the first issue up until modern day I wanted to begin to start something new. While on vacation when I was 14 years old I came upon an old Texaco porcelain sign at an antique store, I bought it and from there my Petroliana collecting has sky rocketed. It's my passion now and there is nothing else I would rather collect than pumps, signs, etc...

Thanks for the stories, keep them coming, and DB still hasn't told us how he began collecting some of the most interesting petro items.

Jack Sim

Hey I'll bite and add to the collection. My story is like McGuffey's except add 36 years to the age. I have always liked cars but admired them from a far having to raise a family and spend 15 years in college. I would watch BJ Auctions, Picker shows etc but when I went to a car auction and saw the petro stuff I bit. Bit hard too. The ironic thing is showing up a swap meet or auction in my Prius-definitely out of keeping with the trucks, which you need for the big signs I've found out. I too like Mobil, from Peggy to the Gargoyle, its all cool. Grew up in Winnipeg where there were some neat start up companies that have since gone under/absorbed like North Star, ROCO and Prairie Cities Oil. In fact the ROCO refinery blew up in 1962 when I was in school kitty corner to the plant. We did our cold war stuff and cowered under the desks while waiting for the all clear. So needless to say I am looking for ROCO stuff now. Just have to find more room to hang the stuff and I wish I would have started sooner. But this a great forum to learn quickly with sage advice from the members.

Fred

Fred

I was born a poor dumb Norwegian back in the 1900’s. They tell me it was 61. I never really did click with playmates but I loved JUNK. My life plan at around 6 years old was to be a garbage man so I could go through all the good junk people dumped. I was collecting car parts off abandoned cars for my dream car at around 10. Mom & Dad gave me a wrecked car around that time and it kept me busy for hours cutting and hacking away at it. I got it running and drove it around the field. It seems like back in them days there were a lot of abandoned cars and back field dumps and just plain good all-around junk that a kid could keep him busy rooting around in, especially when you hit on an occasional Playboy. LOL I eventually found the crowd that I would click with, it was the drug crowd. It seemed like there was always something for sale and I didn’t spend all my money on drugs so I had some left over for buying stuff that caught my eye. I think I always had an entrepreneurial spirit and would build stuff to drag around the neighborhood to sell and make money (wind chimes, trellises, painting and mowing). My grandpa’s name was “Trading Oscar” and I suspect I have some of his blood in me because I really enjoy trading. Grandpa traded an old car for a team of hoses and started thrashing outfit in Cheney Washington. The first pump I bought back in the 1900’s, I think around 89 brought back the memories of walking from the Cheney farm into town wandering around in the truck junk yard then to the Gull station to ask for Gull or Gulf stickers, ***** I can’t remember. I have a slight memory of jumping up and down on a white piece of sheet metal at the junk yard. I would love to know if I was jumping on a sign. I still like junk and feel more comfortable around a pile of junk than a crowd of people.

When I was around 20 yrs old and I'm 44 right now, I bought a farm near Marlboro, Ohio. There was an original tall Bennett 646B Sinclair pump on the farm across the street leaning over in the weeds. One day I look out the window and the farmer had the pump up on the front forks of his tractor carrying it across the field to a huge hole he had dug, I took off running (probably looked like a scene from "Gone with the Wind") Not to mention I could actually run fast at that time, lol, not now. So he gave it to me and I restored it, that started the fire. So I starting picking around my neighborhood and WHOA did I hit some goldmines. Found seven original globes upstairs in a barn down the street (one box had (2) 15" Johnson lenses). Then there was this man in Uniontown I called "Crazy Jake." He was meaner than a rattlesnake but boy did he have some serious stuff in his building. You would go up and ring the doorbell and he would come to the door with this crazy LSD look on his face "What do you want!" and slam the door closed again , so I would knock again. Finally he would reply "It'll cost you 20 bucks just to look in that building today!" So I would drag a twenty out and hand it to him. He would whistle and this mut dog of his (I swear this was the smartest dog I've ever seen would run up out of nowhere growling at me and follow us). So that's where I found the only Milestone clockface model #40 known (FOR $250 BUCKS). He would hand the cash to the dog and say "hide it." The dog would take off back towards the house with the money. Like an hour later and after several arguments with Jake because he was an absolute bear to deal with, the dog came back with a note saying "supper is ready in 10 minutes." "Sorry he said, your time is up today Goober." Next time you come back, bring a real wad of money OK? And the door would slam shut, let's go times up! Guess I'd better go back over there again soon, sometimes going back to an old source can lead you into something you missed. Happy Easter.

Goober

Very cool memory you have there Goober!!!