My Westerner

[bear]

Thanks very much to the agent (who'll remain anonymous for now) who helped me secure the Westerner.



Here is the back story behind the grill, as passed on to me from the seller:

"As promised, here is the information we have on the Weber Westerner you bought from us on eBay.

We are antique dealers here in North Central Wisconsin. My husband is third generation from his family doing this. He has been an antique 'picker' for over thirty years. We are the original 'pickers'; we literally stop and knock on doors to ask whether the residents have anything antique, collectible, old, or odd to sell. We have been working around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan buying items for the past several years.

About a month ago, we met a gentleman at a remote campground and got chatting. It turns out he is executor of the widowed campground owner's estate, and offered to have us come see what we might be interested in buying.

We were taken to Red Pine Lodge area just outside of Ishpeming, Michigan, where the old couple had their Lake vacation home. The fellow  passed away in November 2016 at the age of 92. He was a navy pilot, served in several wars, was airline pilot for several Airlines, and owned multiple businesses.

Their home was like walking into a time capsule from 1970... The old couple had only spent a handful of days there. From this Lake home, we arranged to buy a Wurlitzer jukebox, 19" brass warship porthole, vintage Korean war era clothing, and many other great items. In the garage, there were several pristine 1967-1975 Cadillac sedans. There was also a large, unique looking grill in the far corner. It was clean and appeared rarely used, so we bought it. (As a side note, he had a receipt from a Chicago area jeweler dated 1966 for his Rolex watch. I imagine it was during one of his Navy Pier stays in Chicago that he must have purchased the grill...however, this is simply a guess as he is deceased and his elderly widow does not remember).

Part of my job with our business is to research odd items and determine their range of value. It didn't take me too long to use Internet searching and discover a Weber Kettle Club for grill collectors. I was shocked and delighted to find our grill on the club site. I used the information to help list the grill for sale, and the rest (as they say) is history!

I hope you will find this information helpful in preserving the grill's story."

[Mr.CPHo]

Cool backstory, thanks for sharing. 


Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[UserGone]

Bear, When did you first learn that this Westerner was listed on eBay?


Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[harris92]

Welcome to the Westerner club.   

[JEBIV]

@bear congrats and awesome that you got the story as well makes her even more unique

[Hogsy]

So stoked you got this bear! The first Aussie to own a Westerner!!!
Still working on a way to buy this from you😀 Golly and myself will be buying a plane ticket to come see it when it arrives downunder. A big thanks to the agent who as always was happy and willing to drop everything and pick the grill up......In the 5yrs I've been on this forum he has never let any of us Aussies down...No1 Agent!

[mhiszem]

Amazing story and team work.

[bear]

So stoked you got this bear! The first Aussie to own a Westerner!!!
Still working on a way to buy this from you😀 Golly and myself will be buying a plane ticket to come see it when it arrives downunder. A big thanks to the agent who as always was happy and willing to drop everything and pick the grill up......In the 5yrs I've been on this forum he has never let any of us Aussies down...No1 Agent!

Thanks mate, glad someone's happy about it..... SWMBO's gonna kill me when she finds out

[JEBIV]

Thanks mate, glad someone's happy about it..... SWMBO's gonna kill me when she finds out

I know how that feels LOL sometimes costs me as much to get out of trouble as it does to buy the grill @bear

[Scott Zee]

GREAT score @bear, she's a beauty. Awesome back story and just LOVE the WKC teamwork reaching from one corner of the world to another. I can see the agent in the lid pic, hiding behind the camera. Who can it be ??

[Rub]

Very cool story! I'd love to know what the picker was able to get it for...or maybe not. Lol

[Maxmbob]

 Great story, congrats.

looking for Blue mbh, Blue Mlh.

[bear]

GREAT score @bear, she's a beauty. Awesome back story and just LOVE the WKC teamwork reaching from one corner of the world to another. I can see the agent in the lid pic, hiding behind the camera. Who can it be ??

Seller's pic from eBay

[Travis]

Great story. I bet those people have stories for Days about the people they've met and what those items meant to them. Very cool and Congrats.

[Hell Fire Grill]

With all the SWMBOs killing the membership...there should be at least a couple grills show up on CL in the near future.