Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993                   TAG: 9308120092
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAMBRIDGE, MD.                                LENGTH: Medium

IF IT'S OLD AND STINKY, HE'S GOT IT

Entering Herb Hastings' "Way Back Machine" - a two-story yellow house jammed full of baby boomer nostalgia - is like walking into a TV set locked on the "I Love Lucy" era.

It's "Nick At Night" come to life.

A package of Lucy and Desi cutout dolls dangles from the ceiling just inside the front door. Head shots of the Beatles oversee the terrain from atop a big red Coca-Cola chest.

There's a mild musty smell in the air, but it's part of the shop's character, like the broken windows, the tattered American flag hanging from the porch and the powder blue 1960 Chevy Biscayne out front that doesn't run.

A slogan on the side of the house says:

"If it's old and stinky, we got it."

Metal lunch boxes from old television shows and cartoons line ceiling beams. A "Charlie's Angels" lunch box is tagged at $45. How about a "Welcome Back, Kotter" thermos?

There's a rack of children's books from old-time TV shows - "Bat Masterson," "Sea Hunt," "I Spy," "Gunsmoke."

Comic books featuring Hopalong Cassidy or Roy Rogers and Trigger that sold for a dime 25 years ago carry $15 price tags.

That should be good for Hastings. TV-related items from the 1960s are among the hottest things on the memorabilia market, according to Pat Bishow, manager of Just Kids Nostalgia in Huntington, N.Y.

"What's creeping in are the television shows of the '70s. You can feel it. `The Partridge Family' and `The Brady Bunch' are on the rise now," Bishow said.

Hastings also has GI Joes from 1964, a Dudley Do Right jigsaw puzzle and a Ben Casey board game. There are unopened boxes of Sugar Crisp cereal, a Wheat Honeys box with Buffalo Bee on the front from 1959.

For sports fans, there are baseball cards and Wheaties boxes. One featuring former Chicago Bears star Walter Payton is offered for $25. And there's a youthful, long-haired Joe Namath in his New York Jets jersey on a popcorn machine box.

Hastings, a 41-year-old incurable collector, opened the store seven years ago mainly to get rid of all the stuff he's amassed.

Nineteen-year-old Laszlo Ambrus of Cambridge says he stops in at the store on U.S. 50 about once a week.

"I collect comic books and baseball cards and we wheel and deal," Ambrus said. "I think [the store is] really neat. It's got a lot of stuff that anybody can walk in here and be interested in something."