The owner of the Tomtronix shop at 227 Front St. N. in New Ulm describes his situation with a couple of handwritten signs on the front door of his business.

“Absolutely not taking repairs! Retiring. Don’t even ask,” read the signs.

Bauer has quite a collection of electronic gear in his shop that he has accumulated over the years. Items include amplifiers, combination radio/phonographs in wood cabinets, sound boards, video cassette recorders receivers, and public address systems, for the most part.

“Tomtronix is retiring. If we missed calling any customers that still have items in the shop, please stop and pick them up in the next two weeks. 1AI am full and need to catch up. Thank you for your support through the years! Tom,” Bauer posted on Facebook recently.

Tom Bauer works on a turntable in his electronics shop at 227 Front St. N. He said he’s trying to retire, but has a store full of electronic items and no retirement date.

A good selection of electronics repair tools and parts remain in his shop.

“If it plugs in, they’ll bring it in,” said Bauer.

He added that during his best years, his customer base included southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.

“He’d fix things that nobody else in town could,” said a New Ulm customer.

“You fixed my old Kenwood receiver for me once. And a TV I believe. Guys like you are very hard to find now in this throw away world we live in…Your service will be missed,” posted a happy customer.

“This (shop on Third Street North) used to be a Texaco gas station on Highways 14 and 15, before the big (Seventh North Street overpass) bridge was built,” said Bauer.

A 1970 New Ulm Cathedral High School graduate, Bauer studied electronics at Mankato Vocational Technical School before setting up shop here.

A music lover, Bauer said his favorite rock band is Pink Floyd.

He played guitar in a New Ulm rock band named Azby in 1970 with Rod Scheitel, Rick Christianson, Terry Sveine and Brad Anderson.

The band began playing in a garage on the north side of New Ulm. They were allowed to play until 10 p.m. when a police officer would cruise by, telling the band to shut it down.

Last summer, some of the Azby band members performed 1960s and 1970s music with Scheitel’s grandson Carter Quast in a new band called Generation Gap at Schell’s Brewery and Sleepy Eye Brewing Co. The band can be found on Facebook.