OK I got chidded into telling a picking story by Minuteman, The originator of this thread! It appears to be very popular and this is all thanx to who i think is probably the best petroliana picker out there bar none. It seems like when we used to pick more often, that every 2 or 3 years he would show up with a new truck because the last one was shot!! No one drove more miles and crawled under into or over more old buildings and sheds than that guy, whew! Anyway he was an inspiration for sure. Anyway, i dont have many pics cuz like he said we never took photos of the truckloads, just the individual things we kept after we put them up.. This story took me about 5 years to complete. I was trying to buy some signs from an old fellows fence not far from home about 25 years ago and asked about globes. He said the only time he ever had a chance to buy any was about 5 years earlier when a guy tried to sell him 2. I asked what they were and he couldnt remember. outa the blue i joked, they werent Grizzly were they? I had been dreaming of getting ANYTHING from this rare Montana co. He thot for a minute and said i think one of them was! I got a name from him and the hunt was on. Turns out the guy lived next to a small piece of property id just bought and actually one of his sheds was 10 ft onto my property! Ah now i had a reason to go over and see him. The woods were real thick right there so i couldnt see his place at all but went over and knocked on the door. on the front of the shed were a few signs and i could see a visible in a leanto. He comes to the door and i ask him about the globe and told him about the shed being over on my property and that i didnt really care. He said lets go look in the barn. Im getin kinda excited at this point and just inside the door of this old junk filled barn is a big box of bolts on the floor with a Grizzly Ethyl globe laying on its side on top of the bolts!! Holy *****, would it be ok if i get it outa there? NO, I put down there because it used to be up on that beam with another globe and the cat knocked the other one off and it got broken. Over in the corner was the broken globe.......... An Oval E globe, whew! I woulda died had it been a regular Grizzly! Anyway he didnt wana sell it now! Still laying down in the box,, Just leave it there! Long story short i bugged him for 5 more years to no avail. One day he was with his wife up town and i see them together and go over to them. I had noticed that at one time he had a fireplace on the side of his house and it had been removed leaving a big section of exposed area that was missing the bricks that looked like ***** and had been that way forever. Being a mason, again i asked to buy the globe offering my original amount but throwing in that i would patch in the brickwork on the house on top of it,... in front of her!! smile smile The pressure was on now! That evening the phone rang and you guessed it , come fix the brick and i will sell you the globe! Got the globe 2 Gilbarco pedestal air meters a bunch of old signs and a G&B 67 Visible before it was all over.......... Dont ever give up and pull out all your old tricks! Lol
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