The year was 1975. Someone told me about the Pomona swapmeet, so I went. I believe it was July and it was actually on White Avenue at the time, with about 15 rows with about 40 spaces in each row.
It was two days, both Saturday and Sunday. I went down on Saturday with about 100 catalogs that were mimeographed off. I Ran out of those before Saturday was done so I drove back to Santa Barbara and printed another hundred and came back on Sunday. This green truck was the truck that I drove to the Pomona swapmeets the first 5 to 10 years. It was the 25th truck made in 1955 with a V-8 overdrive. It logged many miles back-and-forth to the Buena Park store and to Pomona swap meet
RG canning at the time was putting on the Rose Bowl swap meet twice a year which was actually better attended and had better sales than Pomona at the time, I can’t remember exactly when they quit doing the Rose Bowl swap meet as far as the automotive side but it was great. One day lineup on Sunday morning, get parked, sell a bunch of stuff, go home.
Those early days of Pomona were great. I met some people there that became instrumental in my business, Art and Danny Danchuk, Larry Twigg, and Harold Drake. What was great about these people, is they did not do Truck Parts so when they ran across new old stock truck parts, they would send me the information. One of my favorite stories is meeting someone at Pomona in about 1975 that had a garage full of NOS Turn Signal kits, fused junction blocks, all kinds of accessories, I would always stop at his house in the valley on the way home and buy all I could afford. Those days are gone forever.
I first met Art and Danny Danchuk out there when they were making one part. I believe it was the 57 Grille Bar Light. We worked together for many years and they were the first sponsors of Chevy madness at Magic Mountain. Their company was called Classic Reproductions at that time.
Stay tuned for more 50 years of memories.
