[Milsurplus] Biggest estate sale, 1970

[Hue Miller]

>From the same issue of  "Air Progress", an article "Ernie
Simmons: Warbird Collector".  "Before the sport of 
collecting Warbirds became both fashionable and 
money-wise, it was usually an eccentric breed of 
collector  that gathered these historic machines."
Hmmmm....
Ernie Simmons had a farm near Tillsonburg, Ontario,
Canada. After WW2 he started adding war-surplus
aircraft and vehicles to his machinery collection.
At his passing in 1970,  his estate held 42 aircraft, 
107 motorcycles, 15 army vehicles, and 15 Bren gun
carriers, and lots more. All this stuff was stored 
outside, so condition varied quite a bit. A 3-day
auction was attended by 30,000.
Mr. Simmons passed away a month after being 
shot by armed robbers - never caught.  A cache
tends to attract predators. When i was young and
had a paper route, i used to hate the large barking
ill-tempered dogs that some property owners kept.
Now i understand their popularity for some situations.
-Hue Miller