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Old Tools in the 90's 

  

Back in the early 1990's we all went to a Tool Swap Meet in Santa Monica at a store called Old Tools.  Store owner Andy Anderson was the mastermind of those quarterly events and that tool store became a major Southern California gathering place where collector, dealer and user could meet and discuss their differences and even find common ground.  

 
 

 

  When Andy died in January 1999, we all worried about the fate of old tools in SoCal but Anderson Plywood owner John Arenson stepped up to the plate and the swap meet found a new home at his hardware store in Culver City.  
 
 

 
  No one has been able to fully duplicate Andy's fabulous old tool store but at least we were able to keep the swap meet alive and the tool family has been growing by leaps and bounds ever since.
 
 

 
  The mastermind of the Old Tool Swap Meets was Andy Anderson. Weeks before a swap meet, he put ads in tool publications, the local advertising paper, and sent out reminder postcards. 

On the day of the swap meet, he and his staff (in the above photo Andy's daughter and grandaughter help with a mailing) had hot coffee made and endless boxes of donuts set out for everyone to consume free of charge. He also had the local "Roach Coach" stop by so everyone could have late breakfast/early lunch.  

During the event, he supplied quarters for the parking meters for those sellers who choose to sell from the sidewalk in front of his store. Inside Old Tools, everything was on sale.  

 
 

 

Photos by Jim Erickson