Some may call them pack rats, junk collectors or garbage men; others say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Phrases like these frequently characterize people with an insatiable desire to hold on to things they find intriguing, unique or potentially valuable.
But none of these descriptions does justice to Glenn Rygel, a 46-year-old Roselle resident whose collection of everything from classic street rod cars to air pumps has brought together form and function, beauty and nostalgia, history and romanticism.
An automobile salesman at Dick Wickstrom Chevrolet in Roselle, Rygel punched in for work there 28 years ago. When he married Valerie Okoren 24 years ago, his collecting was limited to cars.
“I always loved cars, and, through tinkering with them, I’ve been able to look at other things and figure out how they work,” Rygel says. “The first car I owned spent more time in the garage than out on the road.”
In the mid-1980s, Rygel began to eye other collectible items that he has either purchased, traded for at swap meets or obtained through networking with other collectors. Friends and colleagues say there’s no limit to what Rygel will do or where he’ll go to obtain his next treasure.
“Glenn goes upstate, downstate, two states over to find what he’s looking for,” says Wickstrom sales colleague Vince Tunzi. “He must subscribe to every Tradin’ Times magazine there is in the country.”
Tunzi added that once Rygel tracked down the owner of a defunct ice cream parlor in Roselle known as Colonial Ice Cream because Rygel saw something in the boarded-up store.
“Glenn sees this old sign he had to have,” Tunzi says. “I mean, I knew the guy was crazy when I see him peering through the boards of this building. He finally tracks down the owner in Michigan, I think, and gets a family member down here to come and open up the shop so he can make the guy an offer.”
The sign, advertising Colonial Ice Cream, lit up, and could be adjusted to indicate which flavors were the special of the day. Rygel remembered the sign from when he had visited the ice cream parlor as a child, and ended up paying $60 to obtain it.
Today, Rygel’s collection includes machines, furniture, toys and memorabilia that would make the most casual observer feel he’d entered a time warp. A lot of the collection is showcased in an 18-by-31-foot room the Rygels added to their home three years ago.
The room includes an old-fashioned phone booth with a working coin-operated phone, a 10-cent pop machine and an authentic soda-fountain bar, complete with antique malt machine, glasses and bar stools and a bench and table set beside it. A straw dispenser and matching salt and pepper shakers are there too. And a classic neon sign with “Glenn & Val’s Diner” shines above the bar.
Half a dozen slot machines sit atop the soda-fountain bar and nearby shelves, along with some of the 30 gum ball machines Rygel has collected and restored, some dating to 1929. There’s a 1952 Black Phantom bicycle under a window at the far wall, an old parking meter, a bus fare box and a traffic light. Above it all, sitting at the top of the wall, a kid’s pedal car and an old metal Coca-Cola cooler look down on a room that’s nearly 50 years out of time.
“My wife never minded my having all this stuff. I don’t clutter up the house with it, since I keep a lot of it in this room,” Rygel says, casting his eye over the museum he has created.
“Glenn has made some smart investments, and this is something he’s excited and passionate about,” says Valerie, adding, “We have different interests. I’m not into collecting things, but Glenn has always talked about having a house with a room where he could do this. I think a lot of the stuff is really neat.”
Rygel says some of the collectibles dictated the design of the room.”I bought the phone booth from a pharmacy in Chicago,” he says of the 1940s booth. “We made sure a wall socket and a phone jack were installed here in the corner so the phone and overhead light and fan would work.”
Valerie admits she was spooked for a while by the full-sized mannequin that stands against a wall, dressed in an old Texaco gas station attendant’s uniform.
“It took me awhile to get used to the Texaco man after Glenn brought him home,” she says. “You’d walk by the room where he was standing and just want to jump. Our dog, Angel, wouldn’t stop barking at him.”
Ross Grieco, another salesman who works with Rygel, recalls the eventful trip home with the Texaco man.
“Glenn heads Downstate with money stuffed in every pocket, sock and shoe,” Grieco remembers. “He buys this gas pump and decides he wants an original mannequin to go with it, and we find this 1950 Texaco guy that’s fully restored. Glenn must have walked away and back again five times making this guy offers and pulling out every buck he had to buy it.
“But the worst part was the ride home. We had to take a hand off the Texaco guy and stick his head on the floor of the car with his feet up in the air, wrapped around both sides of my head as I sat in the back seat. We get to a toll booth and the lady kept messing up giving Glenn his change because she kept staring at me with this guy’s feet around my ears.”
The room addition serves three purposes in the Rygel home: Besides a showcase area, Valerie sells Mary Kay products and frequently holds sales meetings there, much to the delight of the women who visit. The two Rygel children, Wayne, 20 and Alissa, 18, use a full-sized pool table and one of the few modern features, a Bose sound system, to entertain their friends.
“A lot of my friends come over and just think this stuff is really cool,” Alissa says. “We sometimes wish things were the same now as they were back when all of this was used.”
Alissa’s friends frequently ask about the ever-changing Rygel car collection.
“My friends always want to know if Dad’ll let me drive his cars,” Alissa says. “I tell them no. I just enjoy being a passenger in the cars. I’d be too nervous to drive them.”
Rygel’s current collection includes a ’32 Deuce Coupe street rod with a Ford body and a Chevy engine, ’56 and ’67 Corvettes, a ’65 Chevy Corvair 327 with a V-8 engine, and a ’68 Impala SS convertible.
“I had a ’57 Buick and a ’67 Chevelle Super Sport that I just sold,” Rygel says. “With the car collection, there is always something new.”
He keeps two cars at his home and the others in a garage he owns elsewhere in Roselle.
Mike Moses of Roselle has been a friend and insurance agent for Rygel for 19 years. He questions Rygel’s sanity when it comes to automobiles and machines.
“Glenn’s got a severe problem,” Moses says. “If something is old and has to do with cars or a coin-operated machine and it’s a fair price, Glenn’s going to buy it. You hear about these guys on weekends who do drugs, hang around bars or whatever. In Glenn’s case, he’s probably under his car or playing with one of his bubble gum machines.”
Journey upstairs to Rygel’s home office and you’ll find another room filled with memorabilia with a definite emphasis on cars. His desk is made from the front of a ’57 Chevy, with headlights and parking lights that still work. A plain metal desk is bolted to the back of the body panels.
“I actually have a side business where we make desks for people like this (prices range from $2,500 to $5,000, depending on the model of car used), or even couches out of the back end of old cars that can fold out into a bed,” Rygel says. “As far as the desk goes, you can spend as much on an executive desk made from oak or cherry wood, but I think this is a lot more fun.”
The office also contains 60 die-cast metal cars of various makes and vintages and an old-time Mobilgas Special gas pump Rygel bought eight years ago in Jefferson, Wis.
“I wanted the meter inside to show how much gas had been pumped, so I put this old rotisserie motor from a grill inside the pump,” Rygel says, pulling the manual crank arm on the side of the pump to reset the meter. “I’ve also fixed the price inside at 29.9 (cents), because that’s the price of gas from years ago I’ve always remembered.”
Rygel values his 1952 Black Phantom bike above all else in his room of collectibles. He traded the hard top from a Corvette plus cash to buy it three years ago. He wanted it because when it came out in 1952, the year he was born, it was considered the Cadillac of bicycles. He couldn’t afford one as a child, and always dreamed of obtaining one.
“My ’57 Chevy desk would probably be my next favorite thing, followed by the pop machine I’ve bought and restored,” he says.
“I could probably have sent at least three more kids, if I had them, to college for four years on what all this stuff is worth,” he says. “Maybe in 10 years, if I decide to junk it all, I could move to Florida and buy a condo.”
The investment the Rygels have made in collecting artifacts from their past seems destined to remain in the family.
“If something ever happened to Glenn and I was left with the house, (the collection) would all stay,” Valerie says. “But I think I’d value the memories of all this more than the things themselves.”
Rygel freely admits that, though his collection may serve as an investment, a romantic longing for days gone by has been the driving force behind his hobby.
“Some of the things we have today are great, don’t get me wrong,” Rygel says, “but a lot of this stuff I remember having years ago when I was a kid. With this, I’ve been able to go back and remember a simpler time when you could buy gum for a penny and get a pop for 10 cents.
“I think something that’s coin operated is kind of neat. I think about who made it, and I want to learn how it was made. The gum ball machines had real chrome, not the plastic we have today. Gas was 29.9 cents, plus they washed your windows and gave you (redemption) stamps. We weren’t worried about the ozone layer.
“The sky was the limit for us then. I guess this is just my reaction to a more technological, fast-paced world.”
