Gun Shop - 1960
elubsme
Member Posts: 2,188 ✭✭✭✭
I began working at Baron's Sporting Goods, Duboistown, Pa. They called him Baron after Baron Von Munchausen, the German folk lore story teller. He was a WWII vet, artillery in Germany. lost most of his hearing. He was like a father to me. It was a small store but we sold fishing and hunting gear. He was a Weatherby agent too. People came from miles around to buy and visit. He was very well liked and had a great reputation as a gun smith. Friday nights were the best. The usual locals gathered and we all reminisced about big bucks and fish that got away. He had a pet racoon that had the run of the store. He loved us kids, Jake & I had our box of .22 shells that we would buy at a penny and a half apiece until the box was empty. He "sold" Jake a '93 Marlin 30-30 for $30.00 because it was "not a Winchester and taking up space on the gun rack". I worked Friday nights and all day Saturday until I joined the Navy in April of 1964. He had a cabin at Seneca Lake in N.Y. and would spend the weekend fishing. "Hey Zack, I brought you a nice laker for supper." He retired in '78 and moved to Florida where he passed in '88. I am still in contact with his daughter in law and grandson. He was one of the men who made me what and who I am today.
Comments
Great story
May he RIP
I used to hang out with a WWI vet known locally for custom made stocks. He sold me the first gun I ever bought. Later I worked for a veteran of Korea who sold guns in his shoe repair shop.
Thanks for reminding me of those times.
Great story… Thanks for sharing it
Great story. I miss the old local shops, guns, hardware, barber
I can recall, in the mid-1960's, wandering around Mashburn Arms in OKC..….looking at fishing stuff.
In the mid-1970's, after college, I was back in the store, buying one of my first rifles......a Savage-Anschutz Model 164M.
I sure miss the old hardware/gunshop "aroma".........and cruising the gun racks..…while shuffling my shoes along the old wooden floors.........😌
Good story. Need more like that.
Never hurts to have a mentor.
I did my time in a little used gun shop in West Homestead Pa. Owner was a boilermaker by trade. Was only open in the evening's an Saturday. If he was working over I would open up with a friend. Shop was no real big 3 or 4 people at the counter was over full. Really got my start on the old stuff there.
Late 50's, Donaldson's Department Store on 7th & Nicollet - the busiest intersection in Downtown Minneapolis. Custom gun shop on the second floor, I remember lusting over the big bore Winchester lever guns on the rack. Uff Da.