Bill, the Marklab and Me

It started with a picture I took with my Sony digital camera of Bill's TV & Radio Repair building. I was documenting some of the beloved quirky aspects of my neighborhood and his building stood out as there were three huge red, green and blue panels where large picture window would be on this interesting 1950's structure. An old man was walking in and ended up in the picture because he kept standing there as I was lining up the shot. Seems Bill himself was a curious of what I was doing as I was interested in his building. So we talked and as I mentioned I admired the colored panels thinking them to be rather old, he informed me that they were a fairly recent addition to avoid having the picture windows broken. His face was asmile and practically beaming as he announced the colors were tv picture tube colors which I knew, but I couldn't help but be charmed by his pride. He even made a convincing suggestion to see him if I ever had a tv in need of repair. He mentioned that the building was for sale and he might have found a buyer. Not a few weeks later I saw a hand-painted GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE sign appear in the second floor window. Naturally I stopped in to see what was to be found at Bill's. It took some time to warm Bill up to the wide range of things that I may be interested in. The place turned out to be an island of discarded technologies with not much more recent that 1980's technologies! Laser disc players, dbx noise encoders, receivers I remember from the 1970's all cluttered and unlabelled. Bill used to be a Sony repair shop so there was a fair amount of old Sony equipment among odd brands. Finally Bill said "you might be interested in this EQ" as he pulls out a something I'd never seen nor heard of - a Sony Walkman EQ unit. A little wider than a pack of cards and taking two AA batteries it was in it's original early 1980's packaging. How much Bill?, I had to ask. "I'll take $10 for it". Sold! At last I descended onto a display case packed with Sony battery packs, wall mounting kits etc. but most of the nicer things Bill was not asking reasonable prices for. But one item piqued my fancy - a stereo Sony recording walkman. It was originally $200 in the early 1980's and BIll was asking $90 today for it. I couldn't bite at that price immediately. So I walked with the EQ and maybe something else small I can't remember. But I kept returning, occasionally with a friend to see if Bill would turn up something interesting or come to nicer terms with me as I was killing him with kindness and interest in giving him money and taking things off his hands. One day I walked in and implored : "Bill I've got some money burning in my pocket! Talk to me, tell me what you have for me." So he looks around and says "well I have these four display cabinets here" and proceeded to sell me on how nice they are. Glass shelves, top and sliding doors, mirrored backs, each one 4' x 3 1/2' x 18" and in nice condition. "How much?" "Well..." he hesitated "I'll take $20 apiece for them." "$80 for all four?" "Yes." "OK, I don't know what I'll do with them, but yes I'll take them all. Don't sell them to anybody else." I said closing that sale. "What else do you have?" I would ask again and again when I visited. At last for $10 here I got a small Sony condenser microphone, $15 an 1970's top of the line Wollensak home tape recorder with needle meters, $10 another rectangular Sony condenser microphone and eventually the Sony cassette-corder for $80. Here it occurred to me that before I bought my Sony digital camera this year I'd never owned a piece of Sony equipment before. Not because I didn't want it, I just knew I'd never be able to afford it before and here it was, all on sale from the island of discarded technologies. My cassette-corder came in it's original 1982 packaging with swell carrying case and in seventh heaven I was! When it came time to claim the glass for the display cases at last there was the opportunity I was waiting for. Bill said that there were extra pieces of glass in the basement. Did I want to go down and help him get them? Ah the basement was sure to have a wealth of obscure things in it and this was the opening I was looking for. Looking around I asked him, like a kid at a candy store about anything odd that I saw laying about. A massive oscilloscope here, a working defibrillator prototype there, two giant built-in home speaker systems, ham radio, dot matrix printers, dozens if not scores of unrelated things that perhaps only shared that you ran current through all of them. So I helped move the glass and pointing here and there asked "what about this suitcase here, Bill?" "Oh that's a Sony case for a video..." this and that. "Really? Can I see in it?" So we look in it and it's nifty - square and slightly puffy on the outside between the size of briefcase and a suitcase with wood on the inside for structure. "This is kinda cool. I like this. What about this Bill?" "Oh? You can have that." "Really? Thanks." As we arrive upstairs again I ask him about this A/V cart I saw him put in the sun a few days earlier. "What about this Bill? How much do you want for this? $5? !0? 15? 20? 40? 70? 90? 120?..." "Oh this is a nice cart. Metal construction. Good caster wheels, (etc.). How about $15?" "OK I'll take that too, but I can't fit that in my car so I'll have to come back for it." For weeks we went back and forth on this wireless transmission device that had a 200 foot range and was intended to send the signal to a video recorder with and 1/8" output. Bill wanted $50 for them. He had a few of them and I wanted to see about getting more than one at a reasonable price but he wasn't interested. At last one day he says "why don't you try one for $35 and see how it works for you". So I landed a Sima brand wireless unit that's powered by a pair of AAA and a 9V to add to my battery powered tour setup. One day I show up and Bill's not there and I'm talking with his wife. Bill has a really genial, smiling nature and looks healthy for an old codger. I've been noticing a picture besides the cash register reprinted from the internet of a few WWII ships, cruisers with a larger ship toward the center. It had crossed my mind that Bill might have been in WWII but I did some math in my head and thought you'd have to be at least 80 or so to have been in the war and I doubted seriously Bill was that old. So I asked his wife if he was in the navy in the war and when she confirmed it I said "But how? Bill would have to be at least 80!?!" and she readily admitted "oh he was 15 when he joined the navy! They would take you if you were warm blooded in the day!" So later I ask Bill and he served on the Marklab, the center ship in the picture. Then he served on land working with telegraphs in Seattle. He said the most impressive and majestic sight in his life was on the Marklab with six ships to the left and seven to the right in the crisp North Pacific air. "If you're interested in cassettes" he tells me afterwards "you might want these" as he lead me to one of the shelves in the back. "I hate to see these things go to the dumpster and it's nice to know someone can do something with them". He then hands me a pile of strange test tapes for wow, flutter, tension, speed and the like. "These were very expensive in the day" he said handing the odd diagnostic tapes. "What about those mini cassette ones over there?" I asked about on a nearby shelf. "Oh? You can have these too." Bill's is just down the street five or six block from my new apartment. So before he closes I walk over there one day to fetch my A/V cart: stylish black number with chrome crossbars and raised angled and smaller shelf resting high above the lower two shelves. I talk Bill into looking around in the basement again and he asks for the second time in a few days "Do you want a defibrillator?" So I said, as I was scavenging for this and that piece of junk he'd give me for free, "Why don't I bring the cart down here and load some things on it?" So onto the cart went a mad pile including the defibulater that Bill and his friend made and shopped around at a convention hoping to get interest in manufacture, a falling to pieces Motorola film to video conversion unit that supported only obscure standards and was quickly dropped by Motorola, the ham radios, a 50 pound 1970's receiver, a broken turntable, rolls of cash register tape, and other detritus. Up the short incline I pushed the loaded cart as Bill steered and soon, off like some mad technohobo I went pushing the cart down the street to my house. I had to push it a block against traffic until I could navigate it to an off-street. There I was in a sportscoat and tie sweating the fall heat as the ham radios repeatedly jump of the cart onto the pavement from vibration. All the time I'm on a tight time limit as I'm to pick up my girl Mariana at her mom's in under a half hour. At last as I make it to the curb by my house and I'm desperately trying to naiveté this without unloading the whole thing my neighbor at last comes to the rescue. Together we heft it up and take it down the sidewalk, through the gate and wooden fence gate toward the back where I can abandon it sight unseen to the world as I rush off to pick up Mariana. Now I've dragged all but one display case up to my apartment and there is one in each room: kitchen, living room and bathroom. I sold the fourth case to my boss for a modest profit. The Sony suitcase, (6" x 21" x "17" ) is my new kit tour case. The A/V cart has my studio on it. The receiver and Wollensak were useless. The Sony gear is part of my awesome new mobile studio, the deck and mics delivering super quality recordings and open capabilities. Both the EQ and Walkman have two headphone outs for instance allowing effect sends or feedback loops. So that is the story of Bill, the Marklab, me and my new equipment! It's already been used for ZH27#'s 802, 803 and 804 and will surely be part of my live tour kit. Glee.

November 8, 2003