20 & 21. Auto Center

The Auto Center had two buildings right behind Sheffields. The main building was like a O'Reillys or Auto Zone, sold auto parts, you could walk in and get brake shoes, water hoses, fan belts and headlights, my dad really liked this place as the old school guys would take time to look at books in land before computers, to match up the parts he needed to keep our several Ramblers on the road. Not all auto parts folks are friendly, some should not be in customer service, but these guys all were super friendly. I liked to walk around store (was 6-9 years old) and check stuff out. No toys, bummer. But they did have a triple head gumball machine near front door and a modern light beam thing that when you came inside door, you broke beam and it would go DING DONG! loud as hell to let employees they had customer. My dad told me stay the hell away from that as used to put hand in front of it annoying everyone. One day at this place they had some UFO frisbees you put batteries in so when you toss them, light up like UFO. Those were $5 and that was a ton of money back in 1960s, so every time would go in, would go check stock to see how many left. After 3 months only few left and I had saved up some dinero from trading in Coke bottles, so bought one. A blue UFO frisbee. Looked great at night but due to weight with batteries, could only toss it about 15 feet. I would later find another for sale at Cages hardware a block away year later so bought another since Bootsy chewed up the Auto Center one. The other building on this lot was Auto Centers shop. This is where people took cars to get worked on, stuff like brake jobs, air condition, tires installed, alignments. It is #21 on the map, catty corner sort of facing intersection of Leopard & Port. Can't tell you much about it as never went inside it, had no business in there you know. Auto Center had modern equipment like Sun Tuning systems to get your car running right, Rows of Snap On Tool boxes the grease monkeys worked hard, no AC in this hot & humid area. Just big fans us kids were fond of standing in front of and making stupid noises to hear echos

 

Auto Center The Auto Center had two buildings right behind Sheffields. The main building was like a O'Reillys or Auto Zone, sold auto parts, you could walk in and get brake shoes, water hoses, fan belts and headlights, my dad really liked this place as the old school guys would take time to look at books in land before computers, to match up the parts he needed to keep our several Ramblers on the road. Not all auto parts folks are friendly, some should not be in customer service, but these guys all were super friendly. I liked to walk around store (was 6-9 years old) and check stuff out. No toys, bummer. But they did have a triple head gumball machine near front door and a modern light beam thing that when you came inside door, you broke beam and it would go DING DONG! loud as hell to let employees they had customer. My dad told me stay the hell away from that as used to put hand in front of it annoying everyone. One day at this place they had some UFO frisbees you put batteries in so when you toss them, light up like UFO. Those were $5 and that was a ton of money back in 1960s, so every time would go in, would go check stock to see how many left. After 3 months only few left and I had saved up some dinero from trading in Coke bottles, so bought one. A blue UFO frisbee. Looked great at night but due to weight with batteries, could only toss it about 15 feet. I would later find another for sale at Cages hardware a block away year later so bought another since Bootsy chewed up the Auto Center one. The other building on this lot was Auto Centers shop. This is where people took cars to get worked on, stuff like brake jobs, air condition, tires installed, alignments. It is #21 on the map, catty corner sort of facing intersection of Leopard & Port. Can't tell you much about it as never went inside it, had no business in there you know. Auto Center had modern equipment like Sun Tuning systems to get your car running right, Rows of Snap On Tool boxes the grease monkeys worked hard, no AC in this hot & humid area. Just big fans us kids were fond of standing in front of and making stupid noises to hear echos