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439th Signal Battalion
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439th Signal Battalion

The Stone House in Woodfin, NC, circa 1980's.

This isn’t really a post about a place to visit now, but rather a place that used to be, and one that I think about often. (As far as any decent and genuine US surplus stores in the WNC area, there really are none aside from The Old Grouch's Surplus which is in Clyde, NC).

A few short miles from where I live in western North Carolina is an aging stone building that, when I was a kid growing up in the 1980‘s, was a surplus store called, “The Stone House.” It is now a veterinary office that is always seems to be super-busy.

I can still remember walking up the steps and having that “Army Surplus” store smell permeate your nostrils even before walking through the front door. When you did enter, which had bells tied around the door knob to announce to the clerk that a customer had arrived, you were met first with the cash register and sales desk, the creak of a wooden floor and then racks upon racks of jungle boots, camouflage clothing, OD green uniforms, nets, web-gear, assorted equipment, t-shirts, helmets, and other types US surplus that hung from the walls and ceiling, with even more stuff that was crowded upon the floor, forming a rough and cluttered square for the customer to walk around the perimeter of the store.

Unfortunately, my parents only took me there just a handful of times because like most families, we were always going somewhere or doing something and “didn’t have time” to stop there and look around. My father had served in the 199th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam in 69-70 and had seen “enough of that green s*** to last him a lifetime, or so he always said.

Sometimes, when I drive past the Stone House on my way home from work, I think about having just one more chance to go into that store to really see and digest what was in there at one time. As a kid without a whole-lot of knowledge on US militaria, I am convinced (at least in my own mind) that there were items and collectibles in that store that would probably blow my mind and my bank account today.

Memories…

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