The legendary lair of Old Grouch: a treasure trove of authentic military gear

Nov. 10—Uncover rare war artifacts, score authentic combat-issue gear or stock up on survival tech with an expedition to Old Grouch's Military Surplus in Clyde.

The lair is a lost breed of old-school military surplus stores. Heaps of gear tumble across the creaky wooden floors, overtopping their bins and spilling off shelves. Every nook and cranny must be pawed through, lest a perfect find go unfound.

"It's organized chaos," owner Tim Glance said, a tad apologetically. "Sometimes I let it get a little too far out of hand, but people like to get in there and dig and root around. You sweep the cobwebs out, and you sweep the customers right out the door."

Glance's inventory is constantly churning, which makes taming the chaos all the harder.

"It's different every day. I never know what's going to come through the door," Glance said. "You can't really organize it nicely. It doesn't come in with bar codes and tags on it. You buy five pallets of stuff and you dive in and figure out what you've got."

A lot of the gear is new, scooped up as over-runs from military contractors or purchased direct from the military. But Glance also wheels and deals in antique military garb and equipment, dating all the way back to WWI, scored through estate sales or the underground network of military enthusiasts.

A few things at Old Grouch's are too precious to part with, however.

"The saying is a dealer is just a collector supporting his habit," Glance said. "Sometimes I am more eager to trade than sell."

The setting for Old Grouch's is as genuine as its gear. Clyde is an authentic Appalachia small town that's too often a dying breed these days.

Haven't seen one of them in years

While military collectors and enthusiasts can easily wile away an afternoon here, Old Grouch's sees a steady stream of customers looking for things they can't find elsewhere, whether it's a unique costume part for a cosplay convention or a bomb-proof storage locker for a prepper's bunker.

"We run the whole continuum here," Glance said.

The durable quality of military-issue gear is popular with survivalists, hunters and outdoorsmen — or even parents fed up with broken zippers on their kids' backpacks.

"After they've torn up the second or third backpack of the school year, they end up in here," Glance said.

Glance's knowledge of military gear, both old and new, has been acquired over 33 years in the business, not only making Old Grouch's a destination but Glance himself a walking encyclopedia.

"I don't think there's anything Tim can't find," said Amy Shahparast, a Clyde local. "I have come in here and asked Tim for really random things before and he always has a solution for it."

A scavenger hunt through Old Grouch's arsenal is like a walk through history. Every major American military campaign is represented here — from Korea to Desert Storm — and circles the globe from Central America to Eastern Europe.

With used gear, Glance tries to trace the military records of who it belonged to.

"The more history you can preserve the better. A WWII uniform is one thing. A WWII uniform that was worn by this person and here's where he went during the war, you suddenly know so much more about where it's been," Glance said.

Each relic tells a story regardless. The story of the men who used it, the risk they faced, the trials they encountered and the fears they overcame.

"I get a lot of kids who like to ask questions, 'what is this, what was that,'" Glance said. "You can put on the backpack and see what it felt like or put on the WWII helmet and see how heavy it was."

He pointed to a pair of enormous metal boots propped in the front window.

"If you had somebody using a mine detector to clear a path through a minefield, they would use that as their extra insurance in case they missed something," Glance said.

Nearby, a Vietnam perimeter detection system spits out vibration signals picked up by ground probes out front. A dog tag engraver is a favorite among kids, who relish seeing the machine in action as it prints their own souvenir set.

Family legacy

For the record, Glance isn't a bit grouchy. The store's moniker comes from his father Buddy — or more accurately, Buddy's mother-in-law.

"She'd call my mom and say 'How's the old grouch doing?' And it just stuck," Glance said.

As a boy, Glance would tag along with his father who slung military surplus gear on the flea market circuit.

It was just a side gig then, with Buddy buying military gear at pawn shops or from other dealers to resell. But he was soon scooping up entire lots directly from the military.

"Back then, surplus auctions were done at each post in person and you went and bid," Glance said.

Glance was 14 when his father went all in and opened a storefront in his hometown of Clyde. That was 33 years ago, and Glance has never worked anywhere else.

"I have literally been doing this my whole life," Glance said.

It's been a decade now since the original Old Grouch passed away. Three weeks before Buddy's death, when he could no longer make it into the store, he signed the business over to his son.

"Even then he still wanted to know every day how the store was doing and what was going on," Glance said.

Glance has carried on another tradition that was near and dear to his dad's heart: unofficial caretaker of the Big Gun in Clyde's town square across from the store. His dad periodically repainted the '60s-era antiaircraft gun that's become Clyde's landmark.

"The last time he spent about two months out there, three to four hours a day, scraping and painting," Glance said.

Glance has now taken up the mantle, purchasing paint for the latest undertaking being carried out with help of the Canton Veterans of Foreign Wars post.

Full circle

While the Old Grouch isn't by his side anymore, Glance has stayed true to his roots, unlike most army surplus stores that pedal imported knock-offs.

"Most people who come through the door say 'Oh my gosh, I haven't seen a real surplus store in forever,'" Glance said. "They are thrilled to find a real one."

A lot has changed during Glance's three decades in the industry. There was once a glut of WWII gear on the market, thanks to stockpiles left behind in Europe that were sold off after the Cold War ended.

"That's all dried up now. You don't find big lots. You find one or two pieces here or there in an estate, but there's no big quantity of the old stuff anymore," Glance said. "When we started, Vietnam stuff was everywhere, and it wasn't worth anything. Now it's starting to get very collectible."

Other things haven't changed at all, however, like the dusty statue of a vulture tucked on a shelf among WWII posters and a tattered straw hat from Vietnam.

"Somebody came in one day and said 'Here, it's a picture of you,' and put it up there. It's been there ever since," Glance said.

It goes to show, you never know what's lurking in the corners of Old Grouch's.