Frank Glazier collects and displays unusual items

<p>Frank Glazier has a penchant for saving things — lots of things. His collection includes small items such as old dairy implements, milk bottles, antique wood-working tools, square nails, election buttons, and toy kiddie tractors and larger things like classic cars, vintage trucks, rare gas pumps, 19th-century horse-drawn wagons and a one-of-a-kind mechanical saw rig.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>But mostly he collects and restores old and obsolete one-cylinder gas engines, the kind that replaced steam engines near the turn of the last century and were used primarily by ranchers to cut wood and to run vacuum pumps for milking machines before being adapted to run generators and washing machines. </p><p>“Everybody should collect something and let people appreciate it,” said Glazier, a native-born Petaluman, after a recent tour of his gymnasium-sized warehouse stocked wall-to-wall with an eclectic assortment of mechanical wonders. </p><p>Glazier, 75, was raised on a ranch on the southern edge of town. His parents, Ben and Mabel Glazier, owned the property across the road from G.P. McNear’s mansion that today is part of the bowling alley parking lot. Ben Glazier was a former merchant marine who became a Petaluma policeman during Prohibition and his wife worked as an egg candler for O. Casperson & Sons.</p><p>“I used to fish and shoot ducks in the Petaluma Creek with my father,” said Glazier. “My dad gave me the best education I could get. If I wanted something I could have it, but first I had to work. I didn’t like it then, but it paid off.” Tragically, both of his parents died when Frank was 16 and an uncle, Malcolm Petersen, became his guardian. </p><p>At Petaluma High, he took an interest in woodworking and mechanics. He also had a disdain for automobile mufflers. “I was always hell for loud pipes, the louder the better. Once the cops nailed me, said I had 14 complaints, and confiscated my car. They told me no more loud pipes,” he said, sporting a nefarious grin. </p><p>Discharged from the Army after the Korean War ended, he returned to town and married Beatrice Winn, whose great-grandfather was the first doctor in Tomales. He became a carpenter’s apprentice, which led to a partnership with Kenny Golterman building custom houses. </p><p>“My father-in-law worked on small gas engines and I got the bug from him. I like engines that I know where they came from and what they did,” Glazier explained, pointing to some of the 75 working engines in his collection with nameplates like Fairbanks-Morse, Alamo, Empire, and Superior, and ranging from two to 25 horsepower.</p><p>His trucks, refurbished to showroom condition, include a 1915 Autocar, a 1926 White that once belonged to the Petaluma Oil & Burner Co., a ’32 Ford and a ’37 Ford. His ’41 Chevy coupe reminds him of the one he had in high school, sans the pipes, and he recently acquired a ’27 Ford. </p><p>He owns an original wheeled gas cart, which preceded gas pumps, and assortment of hand-cranked gas pumps, with various gauges and faces rarely seen today. “Pretty soon you have a collection of them,” says Glazier, who shows his collection to car clubs and classrooms and displays items at local fairs and events. “Old-timers really light up, they scrutinize everything. I guess there’s a little bit of everything out here. I always did drag junk home.” </p><p>A widower for the past six years, Glazier lives in a 150-year-old rural ranch house. Its add-on kitchen was part of an old creamery relocated from Bloomfield. His latest project is a 1921 Stewart, a truck that appears to be made of equal parts wood and steel. He also does taxidermy work, a pastime he says helps to calm his nerves. “I don’t have the enthusiasm I used to,” he admits, after explaining his daily routine of feeding the 150 head of beef he raises. </p><p>(Harlan Osborne’s column, Toolin’ Around Town, appears every two weeks. Contact him at harlan@sonic.net)</p>