Do You Remember Grand Junction’s Junk Man?
There was a place down on 3rd between Colorado and Main Street, known as the "Junk Man." It was a store that sold exactly what it sounds like, junk. I ran across it one day as a little kid and remember being amazed at all the "cool stuff" he had in his shop. Do you remember the Junk Man?
This is common with a lot of collectors because they want to collect not sell. He never got nasty with us. Actually, he was a pretty sweet old man.
I was looking on Chamber of Commerce and it said the Junk Man's real name is William 'Bill' Hill. He reportedly made around $30,000 a year. So that means he actually did sell some of his items.
Hill passed away on January 31, 2010, and was a resident of Grand Junction for 55 years. I didn't know this until today, but his son is former Grand Junction Mayor Bruce Hill and his grandson is an old classmate of mine, Brandon Hill. Just goes to show that your legacy really can live on after you're gone.
When I was a young boy, I used to ride my bike or skateboard (depending on the weather) down Main Street, we use to check out all kinds of places and snoop around, never with the intention of buying anything, one day we came across this place called the Junk Man.
We explored this place for hours looking for some sort of hidden gem. If you have ever been in this place, you will know this is no easy task. This place was filled from floor to ceiling with nothing but junk. Nothing had a price tag on it, everything was priced based on how valuable the Junk Man thought it was.
We never had any money to buy anything and I hate to admit this, but we use to steal Playboys from the Junk Man. He had a huge collection of Playboys dating all the way back to the early 70s.
Of course, he would never sell those to us, so the only way for a juvenile going through puberty to get one of these from him was to steal them. Sorry Junk Man, I owe you a few bucks.