The showroom of Anspach Autos in Ono is more than your typical automobile showroom.
While there are up to four class cars on the showroom floor on any given day, it’s the lifetime of memorabilia surrounding those automobiles that makes Ed Anspach’s dealership unique.
The relics reflect various aspects of his hobbies, professional career and interests.
There’s memorabilia for Ed, the antique enthusiast.
“My parents used to go to public auctions and I ended up catching the antique bug there,” he said. “I have some pieces of furniture that belong to a great-great-great-grandmother. My parents had a lot of antiques, so you were of that mindset where some of this stuff is important, don’t throw it away.”
One antique owned by his great-great-great-grandmother is a 1910-era Edison wax cylinder phonograph, a precursor to the modern record player.
“The last patent on it was 1914, so it dates back to that era,” said Anspach. “It’s something that’s been in the family, and I think that is the important part of that story.”
Another family possession that became an antique is a child’s Dan Patch wagon owned by his mother’s side of the family when she was a little girl.
“She played with it when she was a kid and it’s a Dan Patch wagon. Dan Patch was a racehorse back in, well, that would have been the ‘20s or the ‘30s,” said Anspach. “He’s mentioned in the musical, ‘The Music Man,’ and in one of the comments, there’s a line in there about, ‘I’d like to see one of these young kids sitting on the back of Dan Patch.’ And it was just that, ‘Oh yeah, I have the wagon’ or my mother had the wagon at that point in my life. And it just struck a chord….”
There’s also an eclectic array of goods for Ed, the auction addict.
“My partner Audrey had a daughter, Erica, who became an auctioneer so then I would go to her auctions to help out,” said Anspach. “I would hold items up while she was auctioneering. Well, you’re there at some auction for two or three hours and stuff comes up and you say, ‘Oh gee, I don’t have one of those.’ And so I collected a lot of stuff there.”
One item that is a real eye-opener is the topless wood-carved statue of a pineapple girl that Anspach purchased at a local auction.
“It’s a full wood statue that I got at an auction in Annville and that probably would have been in ’96, ’98, somewhere in that range,” said Anspach about the purchase that he says is quite an impressive piece of woodwork. “They were needling me because she was topless and kept saying that, ‘Gee, you really need one of those.’”
And there’s the car-related collection for Ed, the classic automobile aficionado. A good bit of his collection showcases his love of cars and racing.
“That photo up there on the wall is from Watkins Glen, New York. And I was at that race in 1972 and watched those guys race,” said Anspach in reference to a framed print that hangs on the wall off to the side of his desk.
A framed print of legendary race car drivers Mario Andretti and son, Michael, during a heated race is a favored item.
“This is signed by both Mario Andretti and Michael Andretti, and it’s a print that was done just outside of Philadelphia,” said Anspach. “The artist had both of them sign it. This was a period in time, and it was only two or three years, when they were both racing at the same time. The kid in the background is passing dad, so it was memorable.”
Anspach’s love of automobiles – and memorabilia collecting – began at an early age.
His father, John Anspach, owned a salvage yard and later a car repair shop and Ed and his brother worked at that business. They later assumed ownership and ran the business for another 10 years after John passed away in 1990.
“We would find items in wrecked cars because people would just leave their stuff in them,” said Anspach. “We found things like bowling balls, baseball bats and golf clubs – things that appealed to a teenager. And then as I grew older, I got a little more selective with the things I found to be interesting.”
Anspach said his father was a Lincoln Ford fanatic but he had to choose a different field so that he could distinguish himself from his dad.
“I had to do something different than what dad did, so I got involved with imported cars and went through the British cars and some Italian cars and finally found that the Porsches were an appealing car and easier to work on,” said Anspach. “And the parts were available – more available than the English cars, so I collected a lot of stuff there.”
Much of what Anspach has on display at his dealership has more sentimental value than monetary worth, which is all right with him.
“There are things that certain people gave to me and that makes them more valuable. Some of those toy cars came from Chuck Martin, who was just a heck of a guy,” said Anspach, referring to his large collection of toy cars that are in their original packaging. “He was an aviator and he worked for the FAA as a test pilot instructor and he would, when you got your pilot’s license, he would take you up and see if you passed the test and he would then sign off your log book, tell you that you were a pilot. I did that in the early ’70s – got my pilot’s license.”
Anspach has numerous items like convention badges and other event-related goodies collected during his membership in and service to the Automotive Recyclers Association, an international association of used auto parts business owners. He has served on ARA committees and has been the association’s president.
“We had a committee that was called Evaluation and Planning, and we made trips to Europe to look at what they were doing in recycling because they were ahead of us in the beginning,” said Anspach. “We were fortunate because we got to go to the BMW facility and we were at BMW, Jaguar, Volvo, Sterling, Land Rover, and Fiat. The European Union started passing regulations and one of them was that at the end of a car’s life, the company who built it had to take it back and recycle it. So we would visit their programs to see what they were doing with recycling.”
Anspach also has a collection of political campaign material gathered during his father’s political career. John Anspach was a Lebanon County Commissioner in the 1980s as well as an owner of the former AM radio station 1510 WAHT.
“This is an article from the Lebanon Daily News when my father ran for the Senate,” said Anspach, noting a framed article that hangs on the same wall off to the side of his desk as the print of the 1972 race. “It’s more things like that. I mean, I don’t have anything here that is worth $1,000.”
While his collection may not make him rich, the memories of a life well-lived are priceless.
“The German sign I bought at a flea market in Frankfurt, Germany, and that would have been probably around ’88, 1989,” said Anspach. “I was fortunate that I got to travel a lot and I learned, you know, (to) buy things that are enduring. I didn’t buy a lot of postcards, but bought stuff that was functional.”
The Frankfurt road sign contains the words “Achtung!” (Attention!) and “Eisenbahnbetrieb” (iron rail crossing) and notifies drivers to be aware of a pending rail crossing. Anspach also pointed out another German-themed item he owns. He showed LebTown a framed print depicting a town whose name is similar to the Americanized version of his family’s last name.
“This is Ansbach, Germany,” said Anspach about that print. “My uncle was stationed there in about 1952, ’53. So it was after the war, and he was an instructor in the radio school. When he passed away his daughter said, ‘You ought to have that.’ He and I did get to visit there.”
On the showroom floor is a row of three bookcases with books and manuals about automobiles – especially Porsches and other classic imported cars – and other smaller collectibles.
“This is the library where we go back, every now and then, to pull out a book because we can’t find the information we need on the internet or we can’t find a good illustration,” said Anspach, who has a collection called The World of Automobiles Volumes 1-23 within his classic car library.
While his voluminous collection may seem, at first glance, to be quite eclectic, the memorabilia mostly falls into two specific categories.
“I collect things of historical significance, and some of them are of personal significance,” said Anspach. “But some of the stuff, you know, I have a lot of Porsche books and literature that is stuff that is also important on a larger scope, even though the Porsche world is a narrow focus.”
LebTown asked Anspach why he decided to showcase his collection within his business, which also contains metal signs and car grills hanging high on the wall above where his employees work in the dealership’s garage.
“It’s important to share it,” said Anspach. “If I have it and hide it under a basket, no one gets to see it or understand what it is or what it’s about.”
And they are a constant reminder of the places he’s been, the people he’s met and the experiences he’s had throughout his lifetime.
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