The adjacent building, at the corner of Center and San Anselmo Ave, in the same little "commercial block" housed Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly, doing business as "Mountain Bikes", in the late 70's. "One Off", frame builders. Yup, that's right, the cradle of civilization, as we know it.
Yeah- It had been called the P+X market for years. In later years more of a "conveniance" store. That whole little chunk there, "Lansdale", at the intersection of NWP right-of-way and San Anselmo Ave., is pretty cool. I lived on Florence Ave. for awhile. It's the first parallel st. to Center, going N. The train stop has a big history. Perhaps, when I'm in the mood, I'll talk about what I know. I'm not in the mood at the moment. It's big news to me that Dickens 44 Bascom owned it.
I'll definitely ask Mickey if he's got any photos of the old museum but if anyone else out there has any please don't hesitate to let me know or just email them! Thanks!
I went inside the museum in Mill Valley, it was cool, but reeked of glue. A glue huffers paradise. I liked the old Toyota Corona parked outside with all the tennis shoes and ornaments glued on it. That group must have spent a fortune on blue glue. Does anyone remember the shop in downtown Greenbrea next to Jerry Orth's auto repair shop called "Ill Eagle Enterprises ? They had an octagon R-1 (STOP) sign they repainted with a picture of a very sick eagle on it and the place also reeked of glue. I always thought that shop had something to do with the museum group.
It would be great to see a pic posted on this site of the original (?) museum on Corte Madera Ave in Mill Valley (The ARCO gas station/Smith & Hawken).
I never went in, I just recall the stacks of old televisions in front. Could we ask him if he's got one ?
Good news Jason, I was at a party tonight at Mickey's place & am always envious of the incredible amount of pop culture / Americana that he has accumulated over the years, we are so lucky that he & Finlandia have stayed in Marin.I look forward to seeing the interview.
Speaking of The Unknown Museum...check out the Spotlight section for a short video called "Excerpts from the Unknown Museum". I'm really excited because I spoke with Mickey McGowan a few days ago and he's up for doing an interview in '08. The video below only scratches the surface of how amazing his collection is.
That was Dickens Bascomb's car, I have a picture somewhere I took of the 1976 Larkspur-Corte Madera July 4 Parade which was taken right after that car suffered transmission failure pulling a big float up the hill from Wiiliams Ave towards Corte Madera, a bunch of the Larkspur locals on their fat tire mountain bikes took over pulling the float with ropes on their bikes.
I totally remember seeing that car as a child! I had forgotten all about it until now. I think I used to see it around San Rafael occasionally and it always made you look twice when it went by. I suppose I thought that every town had a car or two like this. Reminds me of Mickey McGowan's Unknown Museum.
Anybody remember this thing tooling around Larkspur in the 60s and 70s? Here it is in the 1972 July 4th parade. There's a story behind it, which of course I can't remember.
