47-55.1 "American Pickers" episode I LIVED today at a parts store.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by cmayna

I use to shop at Don's periodically during the past 20+ years. He knew his stuff.....Will miss him.

Yep, as I told his daughter Saturday, he was what I call a "character" and we need more of them. He didn't blend in, he was one of a kind and I liked him a lot. I have story after story about Don, he was something else. Look at that photo with me on my bike. He was 84 in that photo and he was POWER WALKING a few miles into Niles Canyon! He pissed some people off at his store, oh yeah he was a hard nose for sure. Always asking too much, VERY rarely giving you a deal. But damn it, he was interesting, he didn't blend in that's for sure!

I will miss Don, I would chat with him every time I saw him, he remembered me from when I first bought stuff from him 45 years ago! His first place I bought from is now a little coffee shop on main street in Niles. A very nice place by the way, the pastries are shipped directly from heaven! Anyway, back a while ago I was sitting there at the window counter having some coffee at a Niles Flee market or something and there went Don walking by on the sidewalk. It was so wild to think I bought parts from him so long ago right there in that coffee shop, we have jokes about stuff he said back then, and the whole 45 years I knew him story after story, he was a Character for sure!

Brian