SUMMERS COUNTY W.Va. (Hinton News) – I mention my grandfather Bernard Thompson fairly regularly in my stories, it never dawned on me until starting this column the influence he had on me. Grandad would take me to auctions, yard sales, thrift stores, and even trips to the dump from the time I was little. Going to my first auction when I was 10 years old, and his influence was the catalyst for my passion for antiques, especially Americana.
Granddad and grandma were always “picking” before it became so popular, and even had a hit TV show created about it. They always intended that when they retired, they would move back to Summers County and open a museum. Granddad’s interest mainly centered around anything automotive related, while Grandma’s was just about any and everything old Ha
This article you see here is from The Carbider from March 28, 1985. It was a newsletter printed for the employees and friends of Union Carbide in South Charleston, WV. Grandad just happened to stop in an old country store in Walton around 1980. There on a shelf sat 6 of the “Eveready Rustone” cans, each with a 50-cent price tag. Granddad bought them all to add to his ever-growing collection.
The two larger cans you see here are “Everready Prestone” anti-freeze. They were found in the 1920s Bob Ford Garage in Talcott, along with a 1930 Chevy. All of these cans date from the 1930s.
Granddad drove for Chemical Leaman Tank Lines for 30 years and hauled Union Carbide products. So he was extra glad to find these pieces. Especially since it ended with him getting a moment of fame in The Carbider. Ha, Granddad and Grandma never got to have their museum.
That is something I intend to change. I have the old 1918 wooden windows from the Pence Springs Hotel dining room. I have mentioned before that we are turning Grandma’s house into an Airbnb called The Hines Boarding House 2.0 in Pence Springs. The original 1880s meat house is in the backyard. We are going to close in both sides of the overhang on either side of the building with those windows.
We are then going to turn them into display rooms for granddads huge collection of old automotive cans, the 10 antique garage signs, the 1940s wiper blade display from Thompsons Garage in Talcott, 1930’s garage crank air pump, 1918 wooden wheel bicycle and tons of other pieces so it can finally be seen after all being in storage, some of for the last 60+ years. It may not be the museum they intended, but it will at least give honor to them for their collecting they enjoyed doing so much.
