Scott VanLeeuwen (Cont'd) Ogden pawnbroker carries a colorful collection of items, friendships and tales Retired hats hang from a buck's antlers at The Gift House in Ogden. The owner of the enterprise hangs the hats on the walls of the pawn shop and sporting goods store in honor of friends, most of them deceased. WHITNEY CURTIS Standard-Examiner BY TIM GURRISTER Standard-Examiner staff tgurrister@standard.net OGDEN Just south of the giant buffalo head, the antlers of huge trophy bucks in Scott VanLeeuwen's pawn shop are dressed with some three dozen cowboy hats, ball caps and the occasional police helmet. Those are the headgear of old friends, mostly deceased, he rode with, knew well, and now memorializes. The hats are fairly new to the 25th Street shop where VanLeeuwen has prowled for 45 years, as age has begun to thin the ranks of the gruff-but-lovables like himself. The deceased local cowboy poet Jon I. Pentz, of Morgan, included verses dedicated to VanLeeuwen in his book "Dumb Poems by Jon I. Pentz" in 1999, a few years before he died, since he knew where his hat would end up: "The times when I have bit the dust then on a nearby rock I sat. The first thing that I holler out where is my old brown hat? I really am a firm believer that this is a bad disgrace. To see this poor 'ol country boy's hat hanging in a fancy place." The hats on the antlers dangling 8 feet above the floor can get lost in the array of items for sale in The Gift House, likely 25th Street's longest-tenured pawn shop. Items include a huge collection of guns, all manner of taxidermy, jewelry, power tools, golf clubs, VCRs, guitars, saddles, and on and on. Plus barber chairs. "It ain't Kmart," says the 62-year-old owner. A sign hanging from one distinct rifle with a meticulously hand-carved stock reads "Carved by Payne. In the 1950s, he'd sit on a box in front of Ogden's gun stores and carve guns with only a knife and a nail. Not For Sale!" The museum aspect of the shop got a boost a few years ago when a Kansas visitor asked to include his grandfather's hat in the gallery. "He wanted Grampa's hat in with all these cowboys and ranchers," VanLeeuwen said. "Now every summer, he and his two sons come visit the hat." VanLeeuwen's shop has been at the same location, 120 Historic 25th St., since World War II. The man he bought it from, Abe Ruben, first opened it to sell sandwiches to soldiers passing through. VanLeeuwen worked there for 15