United Auto Radio

[berwyn senator]

Another neat place Gone! this store looked like a real junk shop but interesting to visit,they had things found nowhere else.

[berwynson]

Another neat place Gone! this store looked like a real junk shop but interesting to visit,they had things found nowhere else.

The store had the biggest accumulation of stuff to be found outside of Chicago! Crammed full wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, narrow passages between piles, old stuff, mainly. Hardware, parts, old appliances, military surplus, name an item! It occupied a double store-front, some of the stuff in the window had 1/2" of dust on it! My folks bought their first radio there when they lived in Cicero, before I was born, a Stromberg-Carlson table model which served well when I was a kid. Ah, The Cinnamon Bear! Lone Ranger! Inner Sanctum!

Store was owned by a guy named Jack Dvorak, fella of uncertain age, but old, maybe my Dad's age, never married, always wore an old felt hat, summer & winter. My Dad said it was because he was bald as an egg! Jack's brother was almost always there, either with Jack, or minding the store in his absence. He, too, was never married. They lived together above the store, I believe.

If you needed hardware, electrical supplies of any kind, military surplus, appliances, mainly small, old toys, name it, somewhere in that place it was stashed. Sometimes one brother or the other would spend 10 minutes digging through some pile, usually coming up with the item sought!

Amazing place, as anyone old enough to have experienced it will attest!    berwynson