[Milsurplus] Surplus stores, then and now

[Bob Camp]

Hi

Well I'm going to have to nominate another north of the boarder 
location. Toronto had one heck of a surplus palace up I think on York 
Street. This was in the mid 1960's and it was an amazing place for a 
teenager to visit. I saw my first Wireless Set 19 there. They had 
everything from radios to bomb sights, to an ocean of clothing.  We 
didn't have anything like it back in upstate New York. Even the surplus 
row stuff in New York was pale by comparison by the time I got down 
there in the late 1960's.

Now if you widen the category out to include non-military surplus 
stores then there is a lot more competition for the title ....

	Enjoy!

		Bob Camp
		KB8TQ

On Sep 5, 2004, at 6:42 PM, Hue Miller wrote:

> This is a subject that will bring a smile to my face. I honestly don't 
> think you readers
> in Europe can fully realize the wonderfulness and craziness of some of 
> our onetime
> USA surplus stores. I am tempted to write on this but also daunted by 
> the task. This
> is a subject i work on episodically here. I am always after anecdotes 
> but have not
> compiled anything yet. I generally file such anecdotes in a mental 
> file cabinet called
> "Tales of Surplus Glory", with apologies to Ed Sanders, author of 
> "Tales of Beatnik
> Glory".
>
> How about this as a starter. It will be short, because i never visited 
> this shop, was only
> told about it by Bob Williams, a former FAA technical supervisor and 
> WW2 aviation
> radio enthusiast. We'll have to call it "Surplus Motel", because he 
> didn't recall the
> exact name. This was a failed or closed  highway motel outside 
> Spokane, Washington state.
> You parked at this motel and then went in to talk to the manager in 
> the office.  After
> exchanging greetings  you explained what kind of equipment you were 
> interested in.
> ( Bob humorously did emphasize the word "equipment" ). If you were 
> interested in
> 'Command Sets', Navy gear such as TCS, Army receivers, etc., for 
> example.
> Depending on your interest area, the manager handed you a  numbered  
> key. You took the
> key and  went to the designated motel room.  Inside was stacked the 
> gear you were
> interested in. I believe it must have been marked with price, but even 
> so, i'm sure that even
> if it was, there was some leeway for price negociation. You then 
> returned to the office for
> "checkout".  Probably if the gear was heavy anchors you returned to 
> the office without it
> and there discussed the price, and paid up, and then fetched it.
>
> -Hue Miller
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