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Dad closing up shop after 40+ years.

nurkvinny

By nurkvinny
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nurkvinny Enthusiast

nurkvinny

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Thought I would share since this is a car forum with car guys that may have grown up with car dads or in garages.

 

My old man has owned service stations since the late 60's in Zanesville. A Texaco to begin with, then a Redhat, and a SOHIO turned BP for the past 25-30 years or so. These have been real service stations with fuel, 2 garage bays, Full Service where your windows are washed, oil checked, tires checked, etc. There are many of his customers who haven't let another mechanic touch any of their cars for 40 years. Not much of that loyalty anymore.

 

For several years now, he has been the last Full Service station in the area. That's cool because he is the last of a breed, but it's been sad to have watched more and more people take their cars to Walmart, malls, and Jiffy Lubes to get tires, brakes, and the like, where I can 125% guarantee their cars were not handled with as much care as they would have been at an "old fashioned" shop like Dad's.

 

I started turning wrenches there when I was 14 (legal since I was family) and stayed there through high school and college. It was awesome for many reasons, including having the racks for washing my cars, and obviously for fixing them or modding them. It was cool to make my own money all those years and pay for my cars. While other high school kids were going to the mall or movies on their folk's tab, I was working 40 hour weeks during h.s. and 55-60 hour weeks during college.

 

It is also located on the only road in Zanesville where any real cruising **used to** happen. So, dad's shop was always the weekend hangout for 10-30+ cars. Watching burnouts, races, cruising, getting titty flashed, hanging out with a bunch of car guys and just shooting the breeze was my weekend every weekend for many years.

 

I can't begin to count how many hours and days of my life were spent there in the garage learning from, or fighting with, Dad. And well, it is just starting to sink in that Dad won't have his "station" anymore. It will be weird to say the least to drive by it after he is out of there.

 

Man, the commandments that were broken on those car lifts. :)

 

Sorry, I could write a book about that place, but in summary, a really good car guy that helped untold numbers of people over the years, without ever screwing anyone out of money is closing up shop because of high-up people at bigger companies not giving a shit about this old time repair shop in a little town.

 

Maybe I'll organize a Memorial Day weekend cruise and hangout as one last hoorah.

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Reed44 Newbie

Reed44

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sorry to hear that man. it is amazing for people like your dad to have been around that long providing service to customers like that who only went to him. its unfortunate he had to close up after all those years.
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nurkvinny Enthusiast

nurkvinny

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I should have added the positive points...

 

He has a good part time job lined up where he gets to travel around the country some.

 

He will be be able to work on his 67 Corvette restoration that has sat for a couple years now.

 

He won't be working 71 hours a week anymore to break even. He's been working 6a-5p M-F and 6a-10p Saturday for years now. I hated knowing he was working 16 hour Saturdays by himself, so I usually headed down there to help pass the time. That schedule left damn near no time for house projects, or grand kids, or just downtime to relax.

 

He gets to do something different after 43 years and not have to worry about shit that owners worry about.

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Berto Newbie

Berto

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Sorry to hear that. Is he closing because he can't make ends meet with it anymore or is he just retiring? I have a place here on the corner that is a repair shop only but its a local place. When I can't do something I take it there and like you said, he really takes care of you and your property. I hate to see places like this shut down.
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Last_in Newbie

Last_in

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Sorry to hear that. I got gas there the last time I was home a couple months ago. I'm actually going to be home from Cincinnati Memorial weekend so I would be down for a Memorial Day weekend cruise, I could finally meet some of you. My Dakota is still on jack stands but I was planing on getting my fathers Road Runner out so I could just take that.
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nurkvinny Enthusiast

nurkvinny

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Sorry to hear that. Is he closing because he can't make ends meet with it anymore or is he just retiring? I have a place here on the corner that is a repair shop only but its a local place. When I can't do something I take it there and like you said, he really takes care of you and your property. I hate to see places like this shut down.

 

He has a couple years until retirement. Mainly lack of money. For lots of reasons, but the main ones are: first, as mentioned, 30 years ago people went to local gas stations for service, tires, belts/hoses, tune ups, batteries, etc; people think of beer sales and buying lottery tickets when they see gas stations now. Secondly, he has been getting slowly screwed harder and harder each year by company "X". I might go into this one more once he is officially out.

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nurkvinny Enthusiast

nurkvinny

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Write the book, I'll read it, no bullshit.

 

:)

 

Book teasers...

 

assigning the newest guy to fill up the water drinking fountain - by pouring buckets of water down the fountain's drain.

 

sending the new guys to NAPA for synthetic flasher fluid.

 

asking them to pick up that innocent looking ignition system part off the workbench... OH SHIT, IT WAS ENERGIZED???

 

watching people's faces as we grab both posts of a battery and jerking around yelling "buzzbuzzbuzz".

 

the always amusing sounds during Summer time of people blowing up innertubes or rafts at the air hose.

 

"IT'S NOT A ROD! IT'S NOT A ROD! IT'S NOT A ROD!". Long story.

 

 

Thanks guys for the comments. It's easier to take than I thought it would be because most all of the great memories from there were made years ago, so they are already memories. It hasn't been very good watching the business go down hill the past few years. So, I'd rather see it end before he loses even more.

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OSUGT Newbie

OSUGT

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:)

 

Book teasers...

 

assigning the newest guy to fill up the water drinking fountain - by pouring buckets of water down the fountain's drain.

 

sending the new guys to NAPA for synthetic flasher fluid.

 

asking them to pick up that innocent looking ignition system part off the workbench... OH SHIT, IT WAS ENERGIZED???

 

watching people's faces as we grab both posts of a battery and jerking around yelling "buzzbuzzbuzz".

 

the always amusing sounds during Summer time of people blowing up innertubes or rafts at the air hose.

 

"IT'S NOT A ROD! IT'S NOT A ROD! IT'S NOT A ROD!". Long story.

 

 

Thanks guys for the comments. It's easier to take than I thought it would be because most all of the great memories from there were made years ago, so they are already memories. It hasn't been very good watching the business go down hill the past few years. So, I'd rather see it end before he loses even more.

 

 

Messing with new guys is great! We send our newbs to other local dealers asking to borrow the "pavement stretcher!"

 

I remember SOHIO stations when I was a kid. They always had bays for service. Another part of the America I miss.

 

Good luck to you and your dad.

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man i have been there myself... Dad closed his shop on the west side years ago. I still have not forgave him. but to think about making it go full automotive from just cooling system's, would have been a pain. but we still have one family shop that some of the family works at now. Man the memorys a old shop can contain walking thru it years later... or even driving by it.
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nurkvinny Enthusiast

nurkvinny

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This the BP down there by family video? If so I bought a can of chew and a coke from him the other day. Regardless, sad to hear man. Best of luck to him.

 

Across from McDonalds.

 

What's your dad's name? Pretty sure my dad knows him/is friends with him (he's outta town)

 

Fred. Don't you have ties to a business on Maple?

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mmZ06 Newbie

mmZ06

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Sorry to hear. I have a few friends in the business that are having trouble here in Columbus. They have 30+ years in the business as well. Hard to compete with the GE and Kroger (Turkey Hill) stations buying millions of gallons and offering so many incentives. Best of luck in the future.
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nurkvinny Enthusiast

nurkvinny

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Sorry to hear. I have a few friends in the business that are having trouble here in Columbus. They have 30+ years in the business as well. Hard to compete with the GE and Kroger (Turkey Hill) stations buying millions of gallons and offering so many incentives. Best of luck in the future.

 

Yep. The only reason he made it this long was because he outlasted every other small place that already closed (like 12 of them). They dropped one by one, so he picked up a little of their business each time.

 

Ironically, his 2 remaining employees ran another local Sohio/BP for decades until they were also forced out. There is literally 100 years of service station experience between the 3 people at Dad's. That's crazy.

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Last_in Newbie

Last_in

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I was talking with my dad today and I told him about this. He grew up on Karl Drive, which is right off of Harding. He remembers going there in his 70' Road Runner and getting $2 worth of gas to cruise Maple. This was back in 71-72. Thought I'd share.
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RS69 Rookie

RS69

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Vinny,

 

I am sorry to hear about this, but I agree there hasnt been any real service stations for a long time. I am happy to hear your father has been able to hold on as long as he has. One of my co-workers has a similar story as you and your father but his father passed away before he was able to retire(30 plus years as an owner). It is people like your father that was able to help so many people over the years and I am thankful to folks like your father and continue to support these businesses even today over a big corporate shop.

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