Interesting people

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Filed in: Personal opinions, General gun stuff
The firearms world attracts the most interesting people. I'm not talking about my business, specifically, but in general; shooting attracts good, solid citizens who often have a great story to tell.

I've yet to meet the pensive, frightening loner; the crazed, wild-eyed revolutionary; the bloodthirsty, gleeful animal slaughterer; or any of the other stereotypes that the media cooks up to "represent" gun owners. I have, however, met a lot of well-adjusted, happy folks who just happen to like shooting, and occasionally are just iconoclastic enough to lead an out-of-the-ordinary life.

This week, I ran into one such person.

This fellow does a couple of things for a living. First, he buys and sell aircraft (planes, helicopters) and related parts. (Do you know what a starter motor for a Boeing 737 costs? Whole bunches of money, and he's sold them.) That's out of the ordinary, and no doubt about it, but it's the other thing he does that catapults him into the "interesting" category: during the summers, he runs a mobile military surplus store!

He's got this box truck that he's outfitted as a store selling BDUs, canteens, caps, and other such materiel. He travels around California from June through about October, setting up on street corners and empty parking lots. He'll spend a couple of days in one place, then move down the road. By the time winter has set solidly in, he's back home where he spends the coming months divesting himself of the airplanes and parts that he's come up with during his trip.

For those of you living in, or perhaps traveling through, the state of California, be on the lookout for the mobile military surplus store on a streetcorner near you. It's easy to recognize: next to the door of the store he's got a female mannequin dressed in BDUs. Stop in, perhaps buy something, and be sure to tell him that Grant says "hi."

-=[ Grant ]=-
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