greencobra
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i remember the dollar bill guy. he wore one of those umbrella hats with dollars taped all over it. he was very entertaining i thought.
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Blast from the past
- Thread starter BobR51
- Start date
chris_1001
NES Member
I bought my first 10/22 at Herman’s sporting goods in shoppers world in Framingham
Would go to KMart and the Fair both in Milford before heading to “Chicken Sh!t quarry” for an afternoon of stress relief.
I think I went to Spags 1-2 times. Cool place, but hardly went. Got some painting stuff there for an apt if memory serves me.
Would go to KMart and the Fair both in Milford before heading to “Chicken Sh!t quarry” for an afternoon of stress relief.
I think I went to Spags 1-2 times. Cool place, but hardly went. Got some painting stuff there for an apt if memory serves me.
AHM
NES Member
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AHM
NES Member
Dan Aykroyd was influenced by those ads.
My father bought a CB antenna in the Syosset(?) store.
Directions to the new Crazy Eddies locations sounds like a Grizzlebees ad -
"just off the Interstate, down by the airport".
Recently found some 357 from Lew Hortons @ $7.25 a box stashed away. Spag's was our go to place for decades. Wired and painted my house from there. Used to by Stanley 25" tapes 5 or 6 at a time for $7 a piece, bought all the kids Christmas presents there more than once.
chris_1001
NES Member
My father co signed my first credit card. Lew Hortons. Forget the issuer. Sadly my limit was low. Otherwise a new P7M8 would have come home to me that very day...
Spags was pretty well known back in the day. My wife's relatives from NJ would always make a trip there when they were up visiting.
I'll always remember my Dad saying "No bags at Spags. Just clerks and jerks"
I'll always remember my Dad saying "No bags at Spags. Just clerks and jerks"
Dennis in MA
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Not to thread jack, but what about the pile of fake auction TV shows on 1980's cable? The guy in NY or Jersey with the goombah crew. Teh one-armed guy with the safari jacket. Gosh those were funny.
For those that don't know, they'd get this guy to go up and pull out a ziplock bag of dog crap. "What am I bid for this pile of dog crap? Genuine, still warm, picked fresh this morning crap." He'd get the "audience" to bid the thing up to $1,000 a bag or something.
"I'm not going to sell it to you for $1,000 a bag. Not $900 or $800 or even $700. (He sounded very Ron Popiel in this). Not even $500. For every one here today and every one who calls in, your price. . . . . . $199!!!" Then he'd start yelling random auction #'s as if people were jumping up with their little cards to buy it.
What was REALLY funny was - there WAS NO AUDIENCE. That was spliced in footage. Hell, I don't think one-armed safari guy even had that. It was him in what looked like a small-town cable-TV studio. You could tell because of shadowing and such that it was some small studio and not some big auditorium.
It's too bad we didn't keep video of that awful crap. It was a laugh riot.
For those that don't know, they'd get this guy to go up and pull out a ziplock bag of dog crap. "What am I bid for this pile of dog crap? Genuine, still warm, picked fresh this morning crap." He'd get the "audience" to bid the thing up to $1,000 a bag or something.
"I'm not going to sell it to you for $1,000 a bag. Not $900 or $800 or even $700. (He sounded very Ron Popiel in this). Not even $500. For every one here today and every one who calls in, your price. . . . . . $199!!!" Then he'd start yelling random auction #'s as if people were jumping up with their little cards to buy it.
What was REALLY funny was - there WAS NO AUDIENCE. That was spliced in footage. Hell, I don't think one-armed safari guy even had that. It was him in what looked like a small-town cable-TV studio. You could tell because of shadowing and such that it was some small studio and not some big auditorium.
It's too bad we didn't keep video of that awful crap. It was a laugh riot.
Yes, he is Sofa King Funny.
![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
graphite
NES Member
Which one was this, Southbridge? If not, sure looks like it.
We used to also go to the one in Spencer, before Rt. 49 used to go all the way to Spencer.
graphite
NES Member
And no warehouse. He kept all his excess inventory in trailers parked in the lot.
The story was the town wouldn't give him a building permit for a warehouse, so he used trailers.
Back when dad sold handtools, he told me the story about one of the trade shows. They all left for lunch leaving the new guy to man the booth. When they got back they asked if anyone had been by. He said one crazy guy in a cowboy had wanted to order a trailer load of socket sets. He wrote up the order just to appease the nutcase but threw it away once he was out of sight. Needless to say, they dove for the trash.
(Crazy guy was Spag)
graphite
NES Member
That's a great story. Just adds to the legend.
I'm sure a good many remember Service Merchandise, there used to be one in Auburn next to Shaw's which I think was an Iandoli supermarket back in the day.
When I was poor a college student in Worcester in the 80s, I bought the second gun I ever owned there. Saw a sale flyer in the T&G for a Marlin model 60 with 4x Simmons scope for $79.99 - I got that and the .22 ammo on sale, 10 bricks for $49.99.
Enzo
NES Member
Had a big warehouse on Maple Ave. I think the gates on the route 9 entrance are still there. Two large metal cowboy hats on the gate posts. Yup, just drove past, hats on gates are still there.
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Enzo
NES Member
The town would do anything for him. His business was one of the largest real estate tax payers. And he owned dozens of the houses and building that other businesses were in that surrounded the main store.
If you remember how narrow the isles were, we knew the night before when the fire dept was going to do an inspection the next day for fire concerns and we’d widen the isles, at least temporarily.
AHM
NES Member
Although it seemed like the fleet of trailers was bigger than the warehouse, LOL.
Enzo
NES Member
Spags was a weird store. A lot of square footage and certainly a place that wouldn’t even come close to passing any fire code today. you want a thermos, we have it, jeans, yup; paint, sure; hardware, check; work boots, that too; a rug for your living room, yes sir....
Their sporting goods store (separate building in the back next to the hot dog vendor) was pretty good though...bought quite a few baseball gloves and bats there as a kid...
Their sporting goods store (separate building in the back next to the hot dog vendor) was pretty good though...bought quite a few baseball gloves and bats there as a kid...
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AHM
NES Member
When our cleaning lady was giving us <bleep> about
spilled chads from the paper shredder on the kitchen floor
(she vacuums it before washing anyhow),
I told her we were just doing the same thing as Spags:
Someone would go up and down all the aisles at closing time,
casting this blue-green flocking on the floor like a farmer sowing seeds,
so that they could be sure the sweepers hit all the corners.
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