Billings Army Navy Surplus ready to relocate across street

Even for a small family, moving is a pain.

Eddie Schmidt, owner of Billings Army Navy Surplus on North 29th Street, said leaving the store that’s been there for 31 years means moving a lifetime collection so large that he calls it “ugly.”

“We probably have 10,000 different items,” he said.

Like a sheepherder’s wagon, the standing-room-only store features outdoor and military gear stuffed in every conceivable nook.

But last fall, an opportunity too good to pass up came along.

Schmidt made an offer to Ben Brown Sr. to buy his vacant First National Pawn shop across the street at the corner of North 29th and Montana Avenue.

“I’ve been a part of the downtown

for 30 years. I don’t have to leave my comfort zone now,” Schmidt said.

No price was disclosed, but he called it a “good deal” that gives him 7,000 square feet of display space instead of the 4,400 square feet his store has now.

Brown’s former office, an 1,100-square-foot space north of the pawn shop, will be leased out to another company.

“I enjoy this business every day and this building kind of put a new spark in it for me,” Schmidt said.

Stacks of metal Swedish bunk beds are a pain to move, but Schmidt said he’s probably sold 2,000 beds to guest ranches and oil field man camps.

A 250-pound practice bomb hangs from the rafters. There’s a stack of fire-red buckets from the Belgium Army. And a steel Addressograph from the 1930s — a typewriter attached to a machine that stamps out dog tags — will be saved.

“I swore I’d never move it because it’s so damn heavy,” Schmidt said.

A Lassiter/Kaufman glider frame dated 3/8/1943 dangles from the ceiling. Schmidt bought the glider, most likely used in the Normandy invasion, from a collector in Southern California and is asking $10,000 for the World War II artifact.

“That’s what’s about left of these. They came in pretty hard and most of them just shredded,” he said.

But there are no guns for sale. Guns demand a major investment in inventory with little profit margin for most dealers, he said.

A Minneapolis company that will be filming at Heart Mountain in Wyoming is buying stuff from Schmidt. And last year, The Discovery Channel shot video in his store to develop and sell a TV reality show based on survival gear. The crew checked out five stores scattered around the country but chose Schmidt’s lifetime collection and colorful customers.
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By Jan Falsta, BillingsGazette.com

Stoughton Route 138 Bottleneck Study Presented

OLD COLONY PLANNING COUNCIL PRESENTS RT. 138 BOTTLENECK STUDY: A sparse crowd turned up for a Bottleneck Study Workshop on the Rt. 138 corridor and downtown Wednesday night at Town Hall.

The Old Colony Planning Council has and is conducting a study of Route 138, from Stoughton Square north to the Canton town line, to relieve traffic bottlenecks and to develop alternative solutions to enhance traffic flow and improve pedestrian and bicycle safety.

There was a presentation and discussion on concepts that the OCPC hopes will result in a vision for future development and improvements in the 138 corridor.

Among those who DID come were Selectmen John Stagnone, John Anzivino and Cynthia Walsh. Also there was former Selectman Lou Gitto, Ted Philips of Rep. Lou Kafka's office,Emily Dix of Senator Brian Joyce's office, DPW Superintendent John Batchelder. and Town Engineer Ben Feehan.

Business was represented by Rob Kushner, owner of Uncle Milty's Army-Navy store; Robert Branzcewski, who represented his girlfriend who owns Fairy Tales Formals; and Mark Snyder, Vice Chairman of the Stoughton Chamber of Commerce. Noticeable in their absence were any members of the Planning Board or the Town Planner.

Gitto suggested that Town Hall employees park in the municipal lot behind the police station, freeing up the parking lot behind Town Hall for customers of downtown stores. It was also suggested that employees of those stores park on Railroad Ave. in another lot owned by the town, freeing up spaces in front of the stores for their customers.

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By Stoughton Patch

Naturalist focuses on world beyond the classroom

Hammond students love their visits to ‘the cabin’

Deep in the back of the Hammond School campus – on the edge of a 70-acre wooded area known as South Campus – sits a 30-by-30 log cabin seemingly from another century.

“I’m cooking some old bones today,” says Hammond’s naturalist in residence, Tom Mancke, from the cabin’s front porch. Beside him is an old washtub filled with the donated bones of a couple of goats and some pot belly pigs.

The collection of bones might be unnerving for some, but to Hammond students and many of their parents, Mancke and his cabin have become synonymous with a world of wonder.

Called the Primitive Technology Center, the cabin is packed with all manner of things, from animal furs and skeletons to rocks, plants, tools and books. It’s where the 62-year-old naturalist now in his 24th year at the private school says he keeps his “toys.”

“But this is just the base camp. The real learning takes place out there,” he says of the outdoor world.

As an educator, Mancke – known for his infectious energy and unconventional style – is in his element at the private school. But he hasn’t always been this comfortable.

“I had all sorts of weird jobs,” says Mancke, describing his early years before finding his way to Hammond as a middle school science teacher.

But it wasn’t until a guest lecturer at the school quite literally lit a fire for what would become a lifelong love of all things used by early civilizations that Mancke found his true calling. That colleague was Mark Warren, founder of a primitive school called Medicine Bow in the North Georgia Mountains.

“So here’s this glowing ember coming out,” says Mancke, recounting the visit in which Warren used a couple of sticks to show a group of fifth-graders how to start a fire. “After he left, I snapped those sticks up ... and we must have rubbed blisters on our hands for weeks trying to get fire.”

Mancke soon was offered a new job as the school’s naturalist-in-residence. The Primitive Technology Center followed in 1996, and everything fell into place.

Now Mancke teaches primarily K4 through fourth grade in small group sessions that may start at the cabin and end up “in the field.” A recent trip involving third- and fourth-graders had the group hiking a deer trail that ended near Gills Creek.

“What I love about natural history is that I have no idea what we’re going to encounter,” he says. “What’s fun is watching students making that connection to that leaf, that bark or that stone.”

There are also field trips on “Old Yeller,” the school’s yellow school bus, to places like the Congaree National Park. And every year in the fall, Mancke leads a weeklong program, called Primitive Technology Week, conceived with fellow Hammond educator Rene Bickley. The program explores everything from the making of flutes out of rivercane to fashioning entire tool kits from the toe bones of a deer.

The other Mancke

Mancke’s older brother Rudy Mancke, a former host of SCETV’s “Nature Scene,” says his and Tom’s shared love of nature stems from a childhood spent wandering the countryside of Duncan Park, Spartanburg – something that Tom says started with “looking for snakes with Rudy.”

“I don’t know what our parents did specifically,” says Rudy Mancke, now a naturalist with USC’s School of the Environment. “But they allowed us to develop our own interests individually. All four of us were allowed to develop our minds.”

Rudy Mancke says that while their specific interests within the discipline vary, he and Tom have similar teaching styles and a “childlike curiosity about the world. It’s something that didn’t go away,” he says.

It’s a passion that sometimes puts Tom Mancke at odds with the modern-day world.

He does not own an iPad or smart phone (though the school makes him carry a cell phone when out in the field with students). He doesn’t do email, though an old Dell sits on the corner of a table that’s overflowing with bones and fossils.

To reach him, a caller has to leave a message with a school office. The phone message, or email as it may be, is printed out and placed into a box, which Mancke checks regularly.

“I haven’t gotten into computers yet, because they kind of scare me,” he admits. Instead, he prefers tinkering with older forms of technology that may have gone out of fashion. His latest obsession? The World War II-era “hard wire” phone.

Using old telegraph poles that he and his students found in the woods by railroad tracks and some surplus phone wire purchased at an Army Navy store, Mancke rigged a phone line from the cabin to the school office. With the turn of a handle on the MASH-like phone, he can now “call” the office, which he refers to as “HQ.”

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By MINDY LUCAS - thestate.com

Cold Killing Car Batteries

While these cold temperatures may be taking their toll on your home or car, some businesses are reaping the benefits.

If you have an older car battery, chances are these cold temperatures killed it. Batteries Plus is just one business getting a financial leg up when the temperatures go down.

As the mercury drops, Batteries Plus employees get more efficient at changing out car batteries, in part because there are so many more orders.

Managers say they’ve seen quite a boost in business, with about 70 people per day looking for more juice.

The shelves won’t be bare for long – the store has an order for 11 tons of batteries, which managers expect will only last about six weeks if the cold spell continues.

At the downtown Army Navy Store, managers say they’re seeing more people who are ready to spend their cold, hard cash to keep warm. The Coast Guard was there stocking up on extra-warm gear to send to the North Slope, but it’s ill-equipped out-of-towners who are also bleeding green when the temperature drops.

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By Heather Hintze - KTVA.com

Deputies looking for suspect who stole gun from Al’s Army Navy store

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - The Seminole County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect wanted for stealing a firearm from Al’s Army/Navy store, located at 1440 E Altamonte Drive, in Altamonte Springs.

While store employees were conducting a routine firearms inventory this week they discovered a discrepancy which revealed a Glock 17 (9MM) was unaccounted for. A review of the store’s surveillance video showed an unknown male subject removing the firearm from a gun case and concealing it in his front pocket while the store was open for business on Friday.

The suspect is described as a white male, approximately 6’ tall, slender build and blonde hair. He was wearing black baggy shorts, a black shirt, flip-flops and a blue or purple ball cap. See attached photos captured by the store’s surveillance system. The surveillance video is not available. The suspect possibly left the business in a Ford pickup truck, dark in color.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to contact the Seminole County Sheriff's Office at 407-665-6650.

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By myfoxorlando.com

Businesses Struggle to Survive Construction Project in Westfield

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) –

Walking downtown Westfield, it seems there are as many closed businesses as open. Real estate signs or for lease signs are every where. The Army Navy store has been a fixture in town for more than 20-years.   One of the owners says it was the construction project that put them out of business.

Elm Pizza down the street was one of the lucky ones that survived.

“Good thing we own the building or we would have had to close too,” said Owner Nick Theodorakis.

Nick Theodorakis says it’s been a struggle to stay open since the project started about 5-years ago.

He says business was down 60%, they had to cut workers and make other budget cuts.

“What hit us hard was the economy dropped around the same time the project started so it was a double whammy,” said Theodorakis.

Business is sizzling again now that the road out front is paved and both bridges are open. And there are other positive signs.

A new pub is moving into the old Piccalo’s Restaurant, another victim of the construction project.

The owner of “Paddy’s Irish Pub” says he’s been wanting to get into Westfield for years despite the traffic issues.

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By Tricia Taskey

Making a scene: A new generation of New Jersey hip-hop asserts itself

It's shortly after midnight on New Year's Eve, and a stretch of Market Street in Newark is empty. All is dim and quiet -- except for something emanating from a narrow, three-story building next to an Army-Navy store. A muffled hint of music: high-pitched electronic blips and low-down bass.

Behind a gray door, up 40 steps and through a thin curtain, a young crowd, in heels and skirts, sneakers and hoodies, faces the front of a long, dark room. There, the New Jersey Rebels are rocking the stage.

A fresh-faced emcee named Krash Battle -- wearing a knit hat, plaid shirt, jean jacket and an oversize safety pin in his ear -- is rapping about taking it easy and "Redman movies." The song is chill but the crowd is hype, fresh off a set of grimy, heavy dubstep. Suddenly, a contingent near the stage starts jumping around. For a few moments, the place feels like a mosh pit.

Who are the New Jersey Rebels? Three teenagers from Rahway, but also evidence of a new generation of hip-hop coming of age in New Jersey.

Battle, 19, calls his music alternative hip-hop. He's also directly linked to local hip-hop history. His father is Young Zee, an emcee and former member of the Outsidaz, a '90s Newark rap group that is one of New Jersey's many claims to hip-hop fame.

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By Amy Kuperinsky/ The Star-Ledger / NJ.com