[GreenKeys] Jerome Oxman's Military Surplus Store + Museum

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy and Sherry Guttery" <comcents at bellsouth.net>
To: "Bryan Brodie" <greenkeys at vaporland.com>; "greenkeys" 
<GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 7:39 AM
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Jerome Oxman's Military Surplus 
Store + Museum


> On 6/7/2011 8:33 AM, Bryan Brodie wrote:
>> I thought some folks on this list would find this article 
>> interesting.
> Brings back a lot of memories - used to live within a 
> couple
> miles of there-  didn't shop there often - as he was more
> into the the "ordinance" end of things, while I was more
> into electronics.  IIRC - that is where I bought my first
> frequency counter - sometime around 1968 or 69 - one of 
> the
> early Beckman's that used neon bulbs behind a vertical row
> of numbers to indicate the frequency. It's been a long 
> time
> - I might have purchased that counter from the surplus 
> place
> in Pico Rivera - also fairly close to where I lived.  His
> store wasn't one of the larger stores, there was a huge 
> one
> in Long Beach - I don't recall the name anymore - but it
> wasn't far from the old Dooley's hardware (Dooley's was 
> one
> of those incredible iconic hardware / department stores of
> the 50s and 60s that covered a city block - had a (IIRC) 
> 25'
> lumberjack out front.  Now it's a school (also -
> interestingly enough showing the impact the store had on 
> the
> area - Dooley's School.  The only one of those old "have
> everything" hardware stores left in the region (and it 
> only
> covers half a block) is Merrits on Hacienda in La Puente).
> Anyway - the really "serious" surplus store was C & H 
> Sales
> on Colorado Blvd in Pasadena.  The store wasn't 
> particularly
> huge -- but the amount of "stuff" they had was incredible.
> They were into electronics, optics, and pneumatics in a 
> BIG
> way.  I found C&H in the early 60s when I got my first
> BC-654.  All I got was the "box".  A couple of trips to 
> C&H
> - and I had a new dynamotor and most of the accessories. 
> The
> dynamotor was in a large metal can - it opened with a 
> "key"
> like a large ham can - or old metal coffee can.  They had
> teletypes, of course (and I recall a WALL full of ARC-5
> radios - must have been nearly a thousand!) - but at the
> time - I hadn't "discovered" them.  Last time we were in 
> LA
> (2006) we went by, but the store itself was closed at the
> time. They have now moved to a smaller location in Duarte.
> Here's where I shopped "back then"...
> <http://candhsurplus.com/history.htm>  If you explore the
> site - you get a "hint" of what they had - but like many
> surplus places today - it's (unfortunately) more of a 
> "junk
> store" than what it was in it's "glory days"...
>
> Thanks for the memories!
>
> -- 
> randy guttery
>
> A Tender Tale - a page dedicated to those Ships and Crews
> so vital to the United States Silent Service:
> http://tendertale.com

    C&H is still in business, sort of, mostly via the web 
but he has a physical store that's open a couple of days a 
week, forgotten exactly where it is but pretty far from the 
old Colorado St place, too far for me to get over there very 
often. The cat was still there last time.
    About the time I was in junior highschool (now called 
middle school for some reason) there were _lots_ of surplus 
places in Los Angeles and environs. Only a few names have 
survived my memory, J.J.Glass, Bond Street, AKA Surplus 
Sam's, both down town, Columbia, on Venice Bl, I unloaded a 
truck for that guy once in return for some stuff. I am on 
pain killers at the moment for a bad back (maybe dates from 
that truck) so my memory is even worse than usual. I had 
practically no money but could still sometimes find stuff. I 
remember J.J.Glass having a bunch of Model 26's at some 
point. I lusted after one but couldn't manage it on what my 
folks were willing to spring for.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com