quite a lot of money in the day …
just to contrast, a Rolex Submariner cost $230 in 1970. …
I made $5.00/hour at my student job, so it was about a full day’s work.
I still have my Canadian Army combat dress from the 1970s. Not ever worn since, as I have no need for its primary purpose of (sort of) camouflage or its secondary use of smuggling a full 24 case of beer cans out of the mess tent in its many voluminous pockets.
Did you get a hat like Red Green?
Back when I was in Boy Scouts, I bought a sleeping bag from an Army/Navy surplus store. My troop was heading to Mt. Rainier in the dead of winter for some snow camping. The first night I unrolled my new sleeping bag to find the zipper did not work. This was the early 70’s and we guessed the bag was probably WWII surplus. The fabric that held the teeth was falling apart. I survived the 2 nights by rolling up in the bag and laying between a couple of my fellow scouts. My mother made me return the bag despite a no return policy. The store owner gave me a brand new mummy bag and a bunch of other stuff in exchange.
Mine still had his Navy uniform from WWII. I was the same size as a preteen he had been as a young adult so I wore his uniform for trick-or-treating two years in a row (the second time after we moved).
You reminded me that I have a few ammo cans – I assume that they’re military surplus.
I do – or did, I guess – a lot of whitewater rafting and car camping. Ammo cans are great for boat trips as they’re pretty indestructible and keep things dry. I still have one that serves as a case for a first aid kit and another that serves as my boat’s tool box.
Nowadays Pelican cases are available and often serve the same utility but for the price ammo cans are hard to beat.
I have any number of ammo cans around. Mostly used for (gasp!) storing ammo. They are range boxes and have all the necessary junk for a successful range trip - Break Free, Hoppes, cleaning kits, shooting glasses, needle-nosed pliers, Band-Aids, burn cream, etc. Along with ammo and likely a pistol. And one box filled with loose surplus .30-06 rounds I bought in bulk years ago. Very useful boxes, they are.
I can smell this sleeping bag, lol.
Some of my gear that I’ve had supposedly airing out for years STILL has that smell: wool, rope, wood, lubricants, PFASPCBDDTCr6 (probably!), diesel, spray paint.
Yes, but we almost always wore berets or helmets on exercises, and I didn’t keep it. I still have my cap badges, and my father’s cap badges and epaulette slipons with his rank pips, and my grandfather’s sword. My father used to have my grandfather’s issue Webley from WW1 and a German souvenir pistol Grandad “acquired” in WW2, but these were turned in to the local police when he moved into a retirement home.
The only real bit of surplus I had was an RCN pea coat that I picked up in the 70s and wore for a couple of decades on winter days that weren’t cold enough for a parka.
… they float so well. That’s the one place I’d never bring an ammo can.
There was a plan to invade Japan. There was a lot of equipment in stock that was surplus to requirements when that plan was abandoned.
So all of that surplus was available to supply all of those army/navy stores for decades.
But now, seventy years later? The army/navy stores in my area have since shut down.
I should scold you, but alas I cannot, lest I throw stones in a glass house. I wore my Navy uniform to a halloween event at my law school a few years ago. The class loved it.
After posting I wore the RAF jacket to advance vote at the local library. And damn did the velcro ruin that jacket. There’s a line of velcro loop from collar to hem, and the sleeve ends have 5” of exposed velcro hooks that continually grab those central loops. Noisy and irritating.
The only way to avoid the problem is if the jacket is zipped up and the zipper cover velcroed shut. I can imagine how annoying it would have been to a young RAF serviceman.
Either there was no serious testing of the jacket before making them, or there was a manufacturing error. Having the exposed velcro on the sleeves be loops instead of hooks would have made things bearable — although there’s still a lot of hooks and loops that randomly touch and crackle loudly.
The advantages bear fruit well beyond Halloween.
Every sailor, myself included, will testify as having made the acquaintance of at least one enthusiastic woman who expressed a willingness to give him her favor conditional on his wearing his dress blues during the act.
There’s a military surplus store on 42nd St in Times Square that has been in business for 86 years, they’re never open when I’m in the area however, seems they close at 6pm each day.
I think I found that one online. Appears to sell actual military goods (bags, bugles, canteens, etc) in addition to the surplus stuff.