fetlas: the end of an era.
WHen I was a kid, one of my friends moved to Valparaiso, INdiana. And then I discovered Fetlas.
Fetlas was… well, they had…
Look. Here’s a list of some of the things I saw at Fetlas. Maybe this will help illustrate what kind of store it was.
Grandfather clocks.
Canoes
Lumber
Condoms
Magazines, especially the blue kind.
Groceries
Surplus firearms from every conflict on earth
paddleboats
dinette sets
outboard motors
lawnmowers
tents
assless chaps
saddles
boots
guitars
liquor
horseshoes
lodge cookware
casual clothing
housepaint
artist’s supplies
computer supplies
new firearms of every description
THis list doesn’t touch the array of ephemera.
And now they’re selling down the very last article in the store. I went there today and got 30% off a sling swivel for the 336. They have one lonely boat out front, a pile of firewood. A little pile of ammunition and a few (very few) pellet guns. One muzzleloader. A bunch of cap guns. Some leather. A little bit of fishingh equipment.
Time was, you could walk into Fetlas and find an ice cream freezer with a rack of Sharps rifles above it. A box with rack grade enfields tossed in it like umbrellas Perscopes from Armored personnel carriers next to bolts of cloth. Saddles thrown over the top of stacks of Royal Crown Cola. Boxes of milsurp 45 acp ball ammo.
And though they make noises about “restructuring” they will probably soon be gone forever. A pole building covering more than an acre, with a rotting, aging lapstrake motorboat parked out in front.
NOOOOOO! Say it ain’t so Joe! I haven’t been over that way in about a year but I bought s canoe there some time ago. I had been promising myself a trip over for some odds and ends and just to experience it again. That just sucks.
They’ve been on the ropes for a while, but I’m sure having two mega outdoorsy stores open isn’t helping much. This is as close as you’d come to having a general store in NW Indiana.
First, Army/Navy in Hammond (I remember the one downtown that had the floor that bounced and bowed like cardboard as you’d walk across it, before they moved to Sterk’s), now Fetla’s. Tell me Blythe’s is next, and I’ll have to put my head down and cry. Neither, NEITHER of the two mega’s has a pistol range (even though they have robust gun sections), or even plans of putting one in. As soon as you walk into Blythe’s, bam bam, bam, you hear someone practicing even before you climb the 325 stairs to the gun section.
MTS, you forgot Rangemaster Outfitters, which died a painful death.
Rangemaster. Now that’s the hard luck story of the decade. The guy finally is able to grow and expand into new digs (with a cherry new range) just off of Rt. 49 after growing his business for years in central Chesterton, and here comes Bass Pro.
A gunsmith had my Beretta 950BS for months without being able to fix it. I got it back from him, and Rangemaster had it fixed in four days.
Rangemaster gave up, it was suicide, they were scared that us regulers would not keep them going. they are be sorly missed.
Fetla’s that is the slow painful death. I still remember the day i know the place was dieing. i walked in to see that there were real isles, and that you could see over the top of them. I bought a rifle case, and it had a bar code on it, not just marker. Fetla’s, the only store you could go and in one stop get everything you needed for a two week trip of hunting and fishing.
I can’t believe Fetlas is gone. I remeber walking through as a kid and I thought it was in man heaven. I bought my first shotgun at Fetlas in 1975. I hadn’t been back there since moving to Fl over 30 years ago. I was in Indiana last may and drove an hour just to see Fetlas one last time. I was saddend by the empty racks. I am happy to say that i managed to pick up one last memory from Fetlas. A pristine Mosin Nagant rifle. Fetlas, I will remember you always.
THE DECLINE OF AMERICA
went to fetl”s when i was about 5 i”m 43 now and live in florida.i still go there when i get up there to visit family.took my wife there once(she never been out of florida) and she loved it! shore do hate to see it go.I LOVE THAT PLACE!!by the way i did”nt move to florida untill i was 19 so i went there for alot of years for hunting and camping equipment.sorry to see it go under.best of luck to em.
Does anyone remember the name of the bear that was in a cage in front of Fetla’s?
I moved to Michigan City back in ’78 and soon found Fetla’s. Besides your list, they had martial arts equipment; biker jackets, gloves and saddlebags; dog food; camping equipment; large assortment of knives; go carts. They place was kind of a fire trap, but that’s OK. I also remember a life-size cigar-store Indian at the entrance. I believe that this store was related to “Chuck’s 212”, a hardware/furniture store/diner on the far east side of Michigan City.
Stores like Fetla’s and Bear Mountain (a short-lived hunting/fishing store in the Pines) can’t compete with the big-box, corporate behemoths like Gander Mountain, Bass Pro and Cabela’s in the area. I always try to patronize the “little guys”, but I guess that’s not enough.