Thread Number: 6743
Texas Adventure ...
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Post# 134975   6/11/2006 at 01:52 (6,501 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)        

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Also known as, What We Do For Those Frigidaire Parts.

Friday morning, bright & early at 7 AM, the Central South Texas Coast contingent loaded up and headed out for Lampasas. (Note this is the 2nd trip. Austin & Family made the initial pilgrimage a couple weeks ago.)

The "morning bright & early" deal was tricky for me, being as I was at work until 2 AM. I had to be on the road at 5:30 to get to Bellville by 7 AM.

We stopped at a McDonald's in Brenham for some snackies, which turned out to be a mistake, for me anyway. Ugh. Back on the road, I started feeling bad. I figured it was motion sickness, which was a problem when I was a youngster although it hasn't been for many years. Being a backseat passenger always made it worse, so Austin and I swapped seats. But no, that wasn't it and switching seats didn't help. The situation deteriorated beyond motion sickness. Let's just say that I left that Egg McMuffin at several points between Brenham and a particular County Road somewhere between Lampasas and Lometa. Talk about embarrassing! Venus & Austin, being the troopers they are, took it all in stride (I hope!).

First stop was the Stone Ranch. This is a new contact Venus picked up from their first trip. Mr. Stone had a TV/appliance repair shop for many years, in Lometa if I remember correctly. Austin and Venus can correct any details I have wrong. He's 92 years old. The business was closed *many* years ago (31 years??). They gave up their homestead of 58 years last September, moved to Lampasas. We met Mr. and Mrs. Stone at a (gasp!) McDonald's, followed them out to the place through winding County Roads that turned from pavement to gravel. The procession stopped at one point and Mrs. Stone came back, suggested she ride with Venus and Austin ride with Mr. Stone so she can give directions and Venus can fall back from his dust cloud. (A few minutes after this passenger swap is when I had my final McMuffin purge.) Mrs. Stone also mentioned to Venus that Mr. Stone has been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease for five or six years. And Austin is now riding with him ... through a maze of backroads. But Mrs. Stone laughed and assured us that he knows the route, after all "we've lived here for 58 years!"

Mr. Stone has a small stash of parts in a barn on the property, and a tiny "Aberdeen" out back. This is literally a lean-to shed with a couple side rooms. In examining the contents of his "Frigidaire toolbox" a mouse jumped out. Wasp nests were everywhere. Central Texas heat. We went through the material, found some potentially useful things. Austin pulled some pulsator parts from the machines tossed out back.

I have a few pictures of the barn, which I will post later. Sorry, these are the only pictures we have.

After chatting a bit with Mr. and Mrs. Stone and one of their daughters, we headed back to Lampasas for a rendezvous with the eBay sellers, Mr. and Mrs. Briggs ... and promptly got lost. Somehow we ended up in Lometa. Got directions, 16 miles back to Lampasas.

Oh, yes. The deer. Must mention the deer. At one point on the way back on County Road Number whatever-it-was, a deer ran out in front of the pick-up. Wow, look at that. Then Venus hit the brakes. The deer had gotten hung in the fence! Apparently the critter's head had gone between the upper two wires of the fence, it flipped over, broke off the top of the fence post and was hanging there stuck between the wires, struggling, crying, panting, spewing spittle. It couldn't get loose. We jumped out of the truck, and Austin and I pulled the wires apart. It finally got loose and took off running. Pure luck it didn't get an eye poked out on the barbed wire. I got a small cut on my hand from a barb, but hey, we saved the deer.

So at this point at about 3 PM, we've had an upset stomach, wasps and mice and heat, found a stash of Frigidaire parts, gotten lost in Lampasas County, and saved a deer.

Typical Texas day.

Back at Lampasas, we head to "My Girls Antiques, Gifts, and Everything," the business that Mr. and Mrs. Briggs (the eBay sellers) run. Mrs. Briggs' grandfather opened a furniture store in 1923, moved to this building and began selling Frigidaire appliances. Their service tech was a fellow hired after the war and worked for them for 40 years. Mrs. Briggs said whenever he needed a part, he would order two or three extras. When the business closed, approximately $20K in parts inventory was left on hand. The service tech continued doing some work for long-time customers and they eventually used or sold off a lot of the parts. What's left is in the attic of the store, and in a storage building a couple blocks away that was used as a furniture warehouse.

We had some iced tea and apple bread, relaxed and cooled off for a bit while Mr. Briggs ran some errands. Austin & Venus had gone through the store attic on the first trip, sorted out the washer, dryer, dishwasher, and some range parts, and some service literature. She wanted to pick up another box of stove parts that was left. Mr. Briggs then took us to the warehouse.

They advised us that the warehouse building had been infested with bats. Flying, swooping, insect-eating bats. An exterminator had taken care of the infestation, but the, uhhh, bat poop, has not been cleaned up.

We took a look. True to their words, everything was covered in bat pellets. He took us around to the other side of the building where some machines had been stored. Nothing was there but a 1961 Frigidaire electric range, a window unit of unknown vintage, a 1950s Zenith stereo console and matching cabinet TV in a blond finish, and what I think is an LHA-series Whirlpool Supreme dryer. He seemed surprised that some other items apparently were gone, but he didn't say what those items had been. He said the range and air conditioner were for sale. We headed back to check out the parts.

Stifling heat. Bad light. Bat poop. Boxes of parts and stacks of service and tech literature in vinyl ring binders. Thankfully the binders had protected the literature. Austin sorted that out, while Venus and I went through the parts.

By the time we finished and got the truck loaded, we were melted and filthy. A walk through a car wash wouldn't have been a bad idea. Mr. Briggs took us back to the store so we could clean up a bit, we settled the debt for the parts and started for home. Thankfully there were no incidents or trauma on the return trip. We stopped once to secure the boxes better. Oh, and a Speed Queen agitator cap (from Mr. Stone's farm) apparently got lost somewhere between Lometa and Lampasas (Austin, did you find it in any of the boxes?).

Upon arrival in Bellville, we unloaded the truck, while Father Wilder (Retrodad?) looked the stuff over. Austin had a package waiting from Omaha. A classic "pregnant" RotoSwirl, a PentaSwirl, and some tech literature from Greg. Austin and I enjoyed loads in the AMP and Frankenmore (with a PentaVane). The AMP load got rinsed in the GE Dispensall, and we checked out the PentaSwirl action (without clothes). Austin showed me some of the Blackstone video he took in Tucson.

Whew. After midnight. A full day for sure. Home to bed, and catch up on work.





Post# 134976 , Reply# 1   6/11/2006 at 02:15 (6,501 days old) by brettsomers ()        

glenn, this is enough for a SNL skit! regurgitation, alzheimers, rats, wasps, bat scat...lord have mercy!

Post# 135003 , Reply# 2   6/11/2006 at 06:32 (6,500 days old) by goatfarmer (South Bend, home of Champions)        

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Sounds like quite the adventure!

kennyGF


Post# 135010 , Reply# 3   6/11/2006 at 08:04 (6,500 days old) by gyrafoam (Wytheville, VA)        
Glenn---

Wow, now that I've been on a few "parts rescue" adventures of the type you are describing I can certainly relate. Why is it ALWAYS in HOT or FREEZING weather-----combined with layers of assorted dung??!!

Sorry to hear of your encounter with bad food. A terrible experience. My worst experience with that was on a completely full airplane. No where to go---no where to hide. Gratefully the flight was a short one. Horrible. Oh well, most everyone has been through some similiar experience.

Great to hear you guys went through the trouble to try to find these old parts and treasures----they are dissapearing fast.

Best wishes,
Steve


Post# 135012 , Reply# 4   6/11/2006 at 08:10 (6,500 days old) by appnut (TX)        

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Just typical Texas early summer fare.

Post# 135013 , Reply# 5   6/11/2006 at 08:20 (6,500 days old) by brettsomers ()        
Just typical Texas early summer fare.

the Texas tourism council wont be hiring YOU anytime soon LOL!

Post# 135017 , Reply# 6   6/11/2006 at 08:45 (6,500 days old) by swestoyz (Cedar Falls, IA)        

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Glenn, what wonderful writing for your encounters this weekend! While the efforts of this 'typical' Texan day may have seemed a bit of a let down, hopefully the stash of goodies was well worth it! I complete agree with Steve - it is either hotter than hell, or colder than heck.

Awesome job guys!

Ben


Post# 135034 , Reply# 7   6/11/2006 at 09:38 (6,500 days old) by tlee618 ()        

Hi Glenn, Thanks for sharing your adventure!! I am sure right now you all don't have "fond memories" of the day but like so many other things in life, as time goes by you will think back about the day and have a good laugh!! At least you did come away with some hopefully useful parts. Hope you are feeling better. Terry

Post# 135049 , Reply# 8   6/11/2006 at 10:56 (6,500 days old) by westytoploader ()        

Glenn, great story...you pretty much summed up the entire day in a "minute-by-minute" basis!!! It was certainly an ordeal getting there, but was ultimately well worth it in the end! How'd the pictures come out?

Going through the attic 2 weeks ago was definitely the easiest part. Both of these new places were equally challenging, and the intense heat was definitely against us 100% that day! Going through the parts in the barn while trying to climb over the junk spread out there, we took our time, but the warehouse was so unbearable we had to just get down to business and get it over with! Felt like an oven; probably above 110 degrees inside that place, and bat s**t everywhere. I won't mention the little "dust cloud" I made when going through the binders of technical manuals! Luckily we finished up around the same time, gathering up a TON of stuff! Shame those cool Tech-Talk binders were so dirty and could not be saved, but there was so much service literature that it doesn't really matter!

Mom did find the SQ agitator cap when going through the parts, and I while I have a lot of upper Deep Action cones, only 1 had the lower cone! I was still able to make one good Deep Action agitator (including the bleach cup and cap), but the damn pulsator nut is different and it wouldn't work in the Unimatic! Also worth mentioning is an NIB 3-ring circulator column for the 1958-1962 models, but it didn't come with any rings! Does make a nice Studio decoration though, until the rings turn up...;-)

I'll be posting some laundry pictures in another thread shortly!

--Austin


Post# 135063 , Reply# 9   6/11/2006 at 12:11 (6,500 days old) by mayken4now (Panama City, Florida)        

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Glenn, Austin, and Venus:

The Stone's, the Briggs. ALL IN ONE DAY!???????????

Oh my, I am so excited on hearing about this eventful day. I love it when thigs get into a "WHIR" (that's my word for excitement/turmoil). The energy levels must have been really up there. Glad you all found some parts etc. Did the Tech Talk binders come home too? How many did you all get? What years? Venus, hope you were able to find some Flaire Parts!!!


Steve

M


Post# 135067 , Reply# 10   6/11/2006 at 12:25 (6,500 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)        

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Glad to hear you guys had a good time and brought home a few treasures too!

Austin, you might want to wipe off that roto-swirl a little before using it...I thought you might like to have a little of the South Dakota dirt under your nails, sort of like a collector's initiation!


Post# 135081 , Reply# 11   6/11/2006 at 12:53 (6,500 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)        

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Post# 135083 , Reply# 12   6/11/2006 at 12:56 (6,500 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)        

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58 Years of Stuff in the barn

Post# 135084 , Reply# 13   6/11/2006 at 12:57 (6,500 days old) by appnut (TX)        

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wow!@!!

Post# 135085 , Reply# 14   6/11/2006 at 12:58 (6,500 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)        

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Some filters were found

Post# 135086 , Reply# 15   6/11/2006 at 13:00 (6,500 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)        

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Post# 135087 , Reply# 16   6/11/2006 at 13:04 (6,500 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)        
Last Picture

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Post# 135088 , Reply# 17   6/11/2006 at 13:06 (6,500 days old) by westytoploader ()        

Ignore my ugly mug in the filter picture...yikes!!!!

Post# 135089 , Reply# 18   6/11/2006 at 13:07 (6,500 days old) by westytoploader ()        

And when I was climbing the shelf, on the top was where I found the NIB Deep Action agitator column!!!

Post# 135101 , Reply# 19   6/11/2006 at 15:03 (6,500 days old) by unimatic1140 (Minneapolis)        

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Great story Glenn, sorry to hear you were not feeling well, that has to be the worse feeling ever when you are trapped in car! Glad everything worked out and it looks like you guys brought home some fun parts.


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