a living history interview with Billy Bridges, Jr., the class of 1952 conducted by Marilyn Summers on January the 20th, the year 2006. We are at his office at Capitol Cadillac in Marietta, Georgia. The subject of our interview today, his life in general, and experiences at Georgia Tech. Mr. Billy Bridges, it's a pleasure to be here with you today. Thanks for making time out of your schedule to talk to us. 

And we're interested in knowing all about Billy Bridges and all about the car industry or automobile industry so we're going to start though with Billy Bridges where were you born and when well I was born in Atlanta December the 6th 1929 so you were in Atlanta what were your mom and dad doing there at that time had they been born there well no they were born in Georgia they were they were both in South Georgia and they met met well he was daddy mother was going to business school and they met here she was going to business school in Atlanta He was from America and she was from Fort Gaines, Georgia. 

And what was Daddy doing for a living at that time? 

He was selling students on the idea of going to business schools. He was a recruiter, I guess. He was a recruiter. A recruiter for the business school. When he was back then, in the 20s, he was a recruiter for what school? 

I don't remember. You don't know what the name of the school was. Who knew they had recruits? 

I remember Morris. I think Morris Business School was one. Yeah, there is some Morris. I don't know. Because this is, I guess, in the middle 20s. Middle 20s, before you came along. 

So they got married, and was that what he was doing when you were born? 

Was that his reputation? 

I believe so. He was still a recruiter for him. 

So he went around and did presentations to try high schools, probably, to try to get people to come into business school? 

As far as I know. That's what they told you, huh? 

That's right. And were you the firstborn? 

I have an older sister, 18 months older. 

Okay, and then along came Billy. Any other siblings? 

Just the two of us. 

And where was the family living at that time? 

At that time, we lived on Ponce de Linn Place near Inman Grammar School. I know exactly where that is. And is that then where you went to school? 

I went to S. M. Inman Grammar School. And then I went to Bass Junior High School. Boy, I know your stomping grounds pretty well. And then I went to Boyce High School. All right, but first, let's go back now. You're going too fast. You started grammar school more than likely when you were five or six years old. Right. You remember that? 

Yeah, I started in January. I was in the midterm. I know that. Back then they had high first, high second, low second. I didn't know that. 

So you could, if you didn't start in September, you could start in January, and it was a half -year then? 

Mm-hmm. I did not know. In elementary school yet? 

Right. Do you remember going to school? 

Oh, yeah. I remember. It was about four blocks. I had to walk about four blocks. Did your big sister walk you to school? 

I don't think so. You don't think so? 

I mean, we all walked together. Yeah. Four blocks? 

I mean, you know, when you were a little kid, that's a big deal. I guess Mother probably. Maybe she took me. I don't know. I don't remember that. I remember walking to school, though. Did you like school? 

Yeah. You did like school. 

I would think you'd like it for nothing else, social, because, you know, if you're the youngest one, you've only got one sibling, you're looking for action more than likely, right? 

Going to school is where you meet lots of guys. That's right. And I knew all of my sister's friends. Of course, they were older, but... It's not that much older, though. No. You're half older than your son. You could tell more in high school. Did you have a favorite teacher when you were in elementary school? 

I don't think so. You can't remember anybody? 

I remember the principal and Ms. Albright. 

Well, that's good that you remember that. 

Now, it wouldn't have been because you had to go see her or anything. Probably did. That's the story I'm trying to get at here now. What kind of a student were you? 

You enjoyed school, though. Yeah. 

Now, what kind of system was it for elementary school? 

Did you go from first grade through sixth? 

Yeah. First through sixth. And then you would have gone, you would have transitioned. You had your choice. The only two junior high schools was O'Keeffe and Bass. Okay. And I went to Bass. Bass was very close to where you were living. I went to Bass. 

Well, it was over on fire points. I lived in Highland, Virginia. I mean, not Highland, Virginia. It was more or less. What was called Ponce Highland area there. Yeah, right. Just north of it. Or I don't know my directions. I shouldn't say that. Because I rode the streetcar to Bass. 

Okay, so you were still living on Ponce de Leon Place. Right. Then we moved off of Moylan Avenue near Ponce de Leon. 

So you moved even closer to school? 

Closer to Bass. When you were in your junior? 

Right, when I was in junior high school. Okay. 

So walking to Bass was possible, but more than likely you took the trolley car? 

The first, you know, until we moved. Yeah, you did. I remember. 

Where would you catch the trolley? 

Right on Ponce de Leon? 

Ponce de Leon Avenue and Ponce de Leon Place. Tell me what Atlanta was like that to you when you think back to those times. 

What was the little Five Points area like? 

Well, I spent more time at Ponce de Leon Park, at the baseball. I was a ball boy and a bat boy for the Atlanta Crackers. Was farther up the street. I was about 12 years old, I guess. How did you get a job like that? 

Well, I don't know. I just, some of my friends were ball boys and bat boys. And so what would you do? 

Take the trolley car up to the park? 

No, we could walk. 

You could walk from your home place and you'd walk up there and got to watching them? 

And get there early and you could catch **** fly balls in the outfield while they were taking batting practice. Yeah. And this was during the war, too. It was 41, 42. I was about 12 years old, 13, 14. 

So did they play all through the war years? 

They still kept the team? 

What was the name of the park? 

I forgot what they called it. Apostoling Park. I thought it had another name. A stadium or a... Right across from my citizen robot. Yeah, which was huge. It had the place. The park had been there since the turn of the century. It was a pool. It was called Spiller's. That's what I was looking for. Spiller's Pool. And some people called it Spiller's Field too, Spiller's Field, Spiller's Pool. And at one time it had been an amusement park in the front part of that. There was a fountain, there was supposed to have been a fountain or a well. I know there was a pool. I remember the pool. You do remember the pool. It was called Suggs. 

I saw pictures of like a carnival where there were rides and there was a side show and stuff going on. 

But that was really, really early. It would have been 1905 or something like that, way before your time. I don't know. By the time you came along, that wasn't there anymore? 

No. 

The first thing I remember was the ballpark. 

What we're talking about, for those who might not be able to picture it, is where the Home Depot and Whole Foods and all that is right now with a big... It's not a Home Depot, I don't think, but it's some sort of shopping center. Oh, yeah, there's a huge Home Depot there. There is? 

Huge. Oh, yeah, go there. Know that. Yeah. Borders Books, Whole Foods. That's where we played our high school football games, too. at Pontstalline Park. Oh, you did? 

Mm-hmm. All right, let's back up now. You're going into Bass Junior High, okay. That was for three years, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. 

Okay, so that was the usual formula. And that was mixed co -ed. There were girls and boys there. Right. And you made probably a lot of friends at that time. Mm-hmm. And then comes the... I know one other question I've got to ask you. Did they have the Piggly Wiggly? 

I remember Piggly Wiggly. 

Was it right across the street from the, just down the street from the junior high? 

I remember a grocery store, but I don't remember the name of it. Probably Colonial. There was Colonial Bakery. I remember Piggly Wiggly. All those things. A&P, I remember that too. There was an A&P in there. 

Did you ever have to get a job when you were a kid, other than before you went to the ballpark? 

Did your parents have chores lined up for you? 

Well, I always had a paper route when I was... That's what I'm trying to get you. You did have a paper route. Sold magazines in the neighborhood. From door to door? 

The Liberty Magazine, door to door. 

So your parents encouraged you to have a work ethic? 

Yeah. To let you know that was what made the world go round? 

But we all had paper routes from... What paper did you deliver? 

The journal. 

So that was an afternoon paper you did after school. Did you have a bicycle? 

I had a bicycle with a big basket on the front to put the papers. 

So you'd have to go pick up your papers and roll them. That was a big responsibility because you... You had to collect the money on Friday night, and you had to pay your bill on Saturday morning. And if somebody complained because they didn't get their paper, you were the one that was in trouble. You had to pay. That's right. I called it a kick. 

If you got a kick, they would charge you 10 cents or 25 cents. Oh, I didn't know that. It was like a demerit then. Yeah. 

So that was the motivation to hustle. 

But you had to go out on Friday night and collect from there. And I remember, I think it was about 25 cents a week. That was a hassle, too. And then you'd pay your bill on Saturday morning, which would probably be about $15 or so. 

But if you didn't collect the money. And whatever was left, that's what you made. Really? 

So if you didn't collect but $15, you didn't make anything. 

But you'd have to collect. You'd have to keep after them and go back again because everybody wouldn't be home. That's right. 

What I remember we made, we probably made $5 a week. 

Well, see, this doesn't even exist anymore, this kind of enterprise. And so it's important for us to document what that was like. 

So you came home from school. You didn't just go goof around. You immediately had to get your papers together. Did they get dropped off? 

This was in junior high school I was doing that. 

Where did they drop the papers off, or did you have to go pick them up? 

You had to go pick them up at a designated spot. 

So you were responsible for how many customers? 

Probably, yeah. One time I had 150. That's a lot. They were all in apartments, which was easy. Oh, yeah. And I've had, you know, other routes where you probably have 70 papers. It would be two blocks, probably. St. Charles and St. James, I remember. Or streets that you had to go up and down. Two little streets. 

But it meant when you got out of school in the afternoon, you had to go right into action because people would be expecting those papers by the time they came home from work or for their supper time. That's right. 

So the journal was delivered before 5 o'clock in the afternoon. You had to have it out. 

It would take you a couple hours, from the time you left the house to go pick up the papers, to go until you're out and deliver. You realize that's a foreign concept to children today, that they do things like that anymore. 

But that was a business for you, and your mom and dad didn't take care of it. You took it. I made enough to buy my bicycle. And, of course, your parents allowed you to buy your bicycle with the money you need. 

But I bought it myself. I remember that. See? 

And you felt really good about that, too. You got to pick out your own bicycle and pay for it yourself. It was a privilege to do that. That's right. And you learned about counting. You learned about keeping track of accounts. You learned about responsibility. Those are pretty important things. Those things are missing in our culture today. That's why it's interesting to talk about them because children don't have that responsibility. 

Now over and above that you also took on the sales of this Liberty magazine? 

I think we sold the magazine before that. Was that related to the war effort, do you think? 

No. That was just something you did. I had a cocoa stand in front of the house one time. Not everybody, but it was just something to buy a case of co-coals for $20. a nickel apiece. I mean, we didn't pay a nickel. We paid less than a nickel. We sold them for a nickel. 

So you could make a penny or two on a bottle of Coke. Yeah. And you just got it cold and had it up front and people would go buy it. And Coca-Cola gave you the stand. I mean, they put the stand up. Did they really? 

This is interesting. And all the people I've interviewed, I've never heard that before. Yeah. 

So what you had to do was write to the company and tell them you wanted to do that? 

I don't know how. I don't remember. I don't think telephoning was as common as we might have thought. 

But the neighborhood had a, a lot of neighborhoods had cocoa stands right on the sidewalk. And it was up to the kids to maintain it. You like to sell lemonade now, you know, you see sometimes in the neighborhood. 

Well, it's considered a big deal if somebody does that now. 

Well, now they get a dollar for lemonade, and we were getting a nickel for cocoa. 

So did you just passers -by, even cars would stop? 

Yeah, and neighbors and passers-by, yeah. And they were in those little bottles, the familiar little hour shaped bottles. Six ounce, whatever it is. How about that? 

And you never drank up your inventory? 

Probably did. Probably did. Those are pretty good memories when you think about them, aren't they? 

That's right. You had buddies that you worked with. Everybody was doing as you wanted. We'd just hang around, yeah. People just, yeah. 

But you weren't the only one doing this type of work. No. Everybody was doing this. It was a very enterprising little thing. Was Atlanta a good place for you to grow up when you think back about it? 

I think so, yeah. I have nothing but good memories. You kind of were living the American boy's dream, really, weren't you? 

I guess. In a paper route, in a Coke stand. Working at the ballpark. And when you go into the ballpark. I worked at the drugstore, too. 

The ballpark, no, the crackers were the, what did they call them, semi-pro? 

They were independent, but they were probably class. I guess. 

So they were owned by someone who- They were owned by Cole Colesman but- At one time? 

At one time. And then they were owned by Earl Mann. Earl Mann was the owner. Yeah, Earl Mann. Yeah, I remember that name. He bought them and he managed them. He was not only the owner, he was also the manager. Right. And he would buy and sell players as an independent. I mean he wasn't connected with the Yankees or the Dodgers or anybody. He stood his own. 

But as they were coming up, did any of them ever go off into the other bigger leagues? 

Oh yeah. A lot of them did. A lot of them did. 

So it was a great training ground for young ballplayers. They didn't pay them very much money, but I don't think anybody made the money. 

But they were doing what they wanted to do. 

What do you remember about the war? 

As a youngster, what do you remember about that? 

Were you affected? 

I was 12 years old in 41. 

So do you remember Pearl Harbor? 

Yeah. You do? 

In fact I was playing golf with my dad when we heard about it on that Sunday. 

So you do remember it? 

Yeah. And did it affect your life in any way? 

Looking back I can't, it probably did. I remember rationing. I remember my mother had coupons, gas rationing, and coupons for food and stuff. You do remember it? 

We used to collect tin foil. Did you? 

Yeah. You mean like out of gum wrappers and stuff? 

I've heard about that, what make it into a war effort. And collect papers for paper sales. 

But it was all part of your sacrifice for the war effort? 

Mm-hmm. They let us out of school one time to pick cotton for the war effort. Really? 

This was in junior high, either 7th or 8th grade. 

Where would you pick cotton? 

They just put us on a bus and went out in the country somewhere and everybody, girls in the corner, just picked cotton. They paid you, I think, a penny a pound or something. Boy, that was hard work, wasn't it? 

Well, it was fun. Was it? 

Because it was all with your friends. Yeah. Everybody was doing it. And you got a day out of school. And you were doing it for a cause. Yeah. Which makes a difference, too. When you're doing it for a cause, it's altogether different. Did you grow victory gardens? 

I don't remember us doing that. I know a lot of schools didn't have any plotted land. I remember the victory gardens, but I don't think we had one. We might have, you know, tomatoes or something, but not enough to eat on, I mean not to survive on. To give away to other people. Yeah. 

Would you, none of your family members were taken into the war then? 

Your dad didn't go into the war? 

No. Any of your uncles or anybody? 

No. 

So it didn't directly affect you, but you were still very aware of it. Right. 

So you finish up at Bass Junior High and your choice to go to high schools are what? 

Well there wasn't any choice. I was going to Boys High School. It was Boys High or Tech High. That was your choice then? 

They were in the same, well they were next door to each other. Right over where Grady is now. 

And how would you get there? 

Well if you had a Boys High letter jacket with a B on it you could hitchhike because then you knew exactly where you were going. And I hitchhiked a lot. And it was safe to do, huh? 

You'd either ride the streetcar or hitchhike. Or walk. Or walk. That's a pretty good little walk if it was raining or bad weather. 

But that was the first, I don't know, 10th and 11th grade and the 12th grade where they changed the school system in Atlanta in 1947. seven and they made all the junior high schools made them high schools and they closed boys high and tech high and girls high and uh what happened to you well i i went to marist i played football for two years at boys high oh you did and the coach who's your coach shorty doll i've heard that name before too that's why i asked and shorty doll i went to marist And he took about ten or twelve of us to Marist to play football on an athletic scholarship. 

So you were a pretty good football player. 

Well I played. 

Now had you played in junior high? 

Well we didn't have any organized in junior high back then. 

In fact there were no organized sports for you to play any time coming up until you got into high school. Not really. 

But you chose football? 

We didn't have a little league like they have now. 

So you chose football, not baseball? 

Well, I played baseball, basketball, and track. 

So you did everything? 

Everything. That's what I did every afternoon. I mean, I didn't have time. After you got into high school? 

At 10th grade, yeah. Forget all the paper rocks and all the other stuff. 

Now you're going to develop yourself. You're a pretty good-sized man, so you were a big kid, right? 

Well, no. I was, I guess when I got out of high school, I was six feet. That's pretty big. 155 pounds. Skinny. Skinny. Skinny. That's right. 

But you liked sports? 

Yeah. You liked your taste of it? 

Right. You were engaged with it? 

Did you make a lot of good friends at that time? 

A lot of them, mm-hmm. 

Now, Boys High and Tech High, one of them was college preparatory? 

Tech, I think Boys High was more college preparatory than Tech. 

So where along the line had you been told maybe you'd go to college, or when did you assume you were going to go to college, or did you always just know? 

I just assumed. I just knew. It was just something you did. 

So your family put that idea in your head from the very beginning of what you're going on to college. Right. Your father had been a recruiter for college. 

Did he stay at that job all of your growing time? 

He got in the tire business, I think right after the war. Selling tires? 

Mm-hmm. Okay. 

So up until that time, though, he was a college recruiter, then it would be natural for you to become a car. 

Well, I think during the war, he ran a driving range. 

He had to be classified I guess as a golf professional because he did give lessons, but he didn't play in tournaments, but he owned a driving range. 

Where was it? 

Kind of behind Sears and Roebuck on Anja Avenue where I think Foremost Darius was right in there. Oh really? 

I just barely remember seeing it. 

So golf would have been pretty popular, so at one time he told you. And I've played golf since I was eight or nine years old. 

So your daddy was bringing you golf. Played with him. 

So once you were at Boy's High, did you still like school? 

Were you still a good student? 

Average. You liked sports though. Yeah. Which I think is average too. 

What was it like to be a teenager at Boy's High in the late 40s? 

Well all my time was spent, you know, in some sports activity after school. I mean that was, I guess sports was my whole, all my activities. All your activities? 

No dances? 

Well on the weekends, yeah. It seems to me like that. I was a member of a high school fraternity, social. And dancing was a very sociable thing to do, everybody did dance. Yeah. Everybody knew that. We had dances at the Biltmore Hotel, we had dances at Druid Hills Golf Club. Even when you were in high school you did in those fancy places? 

Yeah. Wow. And at the Fox Theater, the shrine upstairs at the Fox. The Egyptian bar. The Egyptian, yeah. It was a pretty fancy dig. It was, yeah. 

Do you remember any of your teachers from that period of time? 

I remember a lot of the teachers at Bois High, yeah. 

Who do you remember? 

Fowler, Ford, Mosley, Farmer, O'Kelley, did they have an influence on you? 

I think probably Shorty Dahl had more influence as a coach than any teacher. 

Of course he taught history also and government, but I think in high school he probably had more influence. 

How did your parents feel when the time came for you to move over to Marist? were they relieved you had some place to go what was the alternative if you hadn't gone there where would you go to grady and that's where you know a lot of my friends stayed at grady they did but and then in fact uh i had one year of eligibility and we didn't wear uniforms at that time maris had it was a military i mean everybody wore a uniform but our agreement was that we wouldn't take military. Because you were just coming to play football. That's right. 

But it was a very academic school. Yeah, Marist was a good school. I mean, they were definitely interested in you learning something. Right. You weren't there for the ride. 

But after one year of eligibility, I transferred to Grady. I really went another half a year because I was in the midterm. You stayed half step all the time. Yeah, all the way through school. 

So you were at Marist for actually one year. one year and then went to Grady for I think one semester and actually graduated from Grady the first class first junior class of Grady 1948 really and then how did you pick a school to go to well I couldn't afford to go anywhere except Georgia Tech I couldn't go off school off to That's cool, I know. And you never... You've never been asked, Tom. No, there wasn't even a question. Do you remember, well Shorty Doyle sent a lot of people to Georgia Tech. He did. He sent a lot of football players to Georgia Tech. 

Well, I wasn't good enough to get a scholarship. 

So that wasn't an option. That wasn't an option. Bobby Dodd wasn't watching footage on you. No. I ran track one year at Tech. Did you? 

I ran the high and low hurdles. Was that a time when George Griffin was in charge of all of that? 

Tommy Plaxico was the coach. Oh, Plaxico was there already. Right. A character. Mm-hmm. 

Okay, let's back up a little bit. 

Do you remember how you got into Tech? 

Was it just a question of writing a letter or? 

Just sign up. I mean, it wasn't any. No big deal? 

No big deal. Just pay you $48. $48. I think that's worth the first semester. I think my books and my tuition were less than $100. And the idea was, you had a pretty good transcript from the other school, from Grady. 

Well, I don't think, I don't... I mean, you had Boys High and Marist were both really good at those academically. Yeah. 

So you were pretty well prepared. 

But anybody could, you just sign up to go, and that's it. That was it. There wasn't any entrance exams. 

Had you ever been there before? 

Well, I followed tech, you know, in fact I was in the scouts, I used to usher. You didn't even tell me you were in the scouts. See, I have to go back and make you do this again now. Come on. When did you join Scouts? 

I was in the scouts just one year. And what year was that? 

When you were in high school? 

I was 12. Junior high. Okay. And one of the things the scouts did was? 

We ushered at Grant Field. There you go. 

So you had been over there as an usher. Right. When you were 12, that was 1941, 42, you were ushering over there? 

Yeah. What was it like then? 

Not like it is today, I don't remember. No. I don't remember. It's just what you did. 

Did you become a Tech fan at that point? 

I mean, did you follow? 

I've been a Tech fan, I guess, all my life. Is it because they were in the papers all the time, the Tech team? 

I don't know why. I mean, I like Tech better than Georgia. Why? 

I don't know. 

Just something that was born in you, just like Coca-Cola over Pepsi, right? 

I knew I wasn't going to Athens, I was going to go to North Avenue. Is that what you called it, North Avenue? 

Well, no. I just knew I was, that's where I was going. 

So you had followed the team in the newspapers or whatever, you were aware. Sure. 

And a lot of the boys, our boys, that played before the war and then during the war and after the war. 

So you were keeping track of all that? 

Do you remember any of them? 

Yeah. Who was one of the big time players then? 

Well, Clint Castleberry was the most famous. 

It's interesting, he was only there for one year, he was famous because he died, I think, more than anything. 

Well, I think he was all American as a freshman. He was, which was very unusual. And then, of course, it was tragic. And then in high school they used to show us movies of Councilor Barry. Really? 

Yeah. 

So he became a legend right away. Right. 

Yes, a lot of people speculated that if he had survived the war he would have been one of the greatest athletes. Right. And he wasn't very big either. I was just going to say he didn't look spectacular. He was 165 pounds, probably 5'11", or something like that. 

But he was quick. Yeah, quick. Unbelievably quick and unbelievably smart, I'm told. He was very smart. 

He had a brother named Jimmy Castleberry, but a little bit younger, who was bigger and played in at Tech. Nobody ever talks about Jimmy. Everybody talks about Clint. Did you ever get to see him play? 

I'm sure I did. 

What are some other players that you remember? 

I remember seeing Frankie Sinkwich play at Ponstellin Park in 40, I think it was when he had the helmet with the bar across, he broke his chin or jaw or something. 

So he had to have protection. 

But that was in 1941 I think. They played center college and I walked up and down the sideline. I mean that's. You were somebody? 

No. I mean anybody could do it. Anybody could do it. I'll be darned. There were probably 5,000 people at the game. It's fantastic. It was a different time. Oh yeah. It was different. We played our high school games, like I said, at Poncelain Park. Once you got to Tech, and you enrolled at Tech, you were a day student. Right. And how would that have happened? 

Streetcar? 

Streetcar. Hitchhike? 

Right. 

I didn't have a car, but I'd either get a ride with a friend, hitchhike, or ride the streetcar or the bus. 

So it would have been 1948. 48. When you went in. 

Now, in 1948, the GI Bill was there, so there were a lot of veterans coming back. Right, there were. The school was very crowded at that time, if I know my history. Right. Very crowded. And you were not, it was not just kids, it was older guys that were coming back. 

There was a guy who had come back 25 years old and I was 18 I guess because I stayed in high school another semester. I think I was 18 when I started at Tech. 

So you were rubbing elbows with people who had already gone home and fought in a war and most of them were married and had families already too. 

Well there weren't that many, but the ones I remember were the members of the Chi Phi fraternity, and that were probably a half a dozen. 

So did you pledge for Chi Phi as soon as you got there? 

Yes. You started in September? 

I started in September. A regular time. You started at a regular time. Right. You get there, and first of all, you're different because you're a commuter. You're not living on the campus. Right. 

So there were a lot of people that were doing that, though. A lot of people were doing that. You had a rush. 

Did you know you were going to go with Chi Phi? 

Was that on your mind or did you go through the rush with others? 

Well it was between Chi Phi and SAE. 

So you attended both? 

Right. You went to several. 

So you did. I'm trying to get you to tell me about that experience. You were invited to several parties, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi, SAE. 

And if you went to one of those parties what were they trying to do? 

Talk you into it or not? 

Well just socializing, you know. They were judging you. I guess they were judging you, and you were judging them too I guess. To see whether or not you were going to get along. Right. 

But I know when we played, I met Julian LaCroix at the varsity, and we were both, we kind of knew we were going to play at Sky Five, but we weren't sure, but we decided at the varsity. 

You went and had a little pow -wow about it and decided you'd both go that way so you had known Julian for a while. 

Yeah, we played football together in high school and the way you pledge, you just walk up to the, I mean the pledge day you just walk into the house, you just, I mean they say starting at 5 o'clock on Saturday or you know it's pledge day and you just walk, show Show up. Show up. That's right. And they put you on the roll. And they take your money. It cost money, didn't it? 

It did, but I don't remember. Did they have an induction ceremony of some kind? 

I probably had a pledge ceremony, yeah, I'm sure. I've heard some wonderful stories about people being abandoned in the country and things like that. Oh, yeah. Initiation. What happened in an initiation? 

I don't remember. You really don't remember? 

Or you won't tell me? 

I'm not going to tell you. I thought so. I didn't think you could not remember. I've heard a lot of stories, though, some people have told me. 

Well, we had an initiation in high school, too. Oh, you did? 

Yeah, when you joined the fraternity. Oh. Yeah, they would take you out, like you said, and leave you in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, I've heard a lot of stories about that. Oh, boy. 

I've also heard where you got missions, you get a piece of paper, something you had to go do, and usually pretty on the edge there. 

What they call it, rat week, a beat -out week, but you had a paddle, and you had to get all the brothers to sign it. 

Their name was on the paddle, and rush wake up, I don't even know what they called it, but all that week they could hit you with that paddle all week long. They could sign, you had to sign on and sign off. And some people would just sign on and off and not even hit you. Some would take the paddle and give you a pretty good lick. That's kind of not such a problem. 

And not sign off, you know, which means they could, any time they saw you, they could grab your paddle and hit. Did you carry your paddle around with you? 

You had to carry it, yeah. You carried it right around with you. Did you have a slide rule? 

Everybody had to have a status symbol, slide rule and a T-square. That meant you were going to tech, huh? 

A T-square, too? 

Well. It's kind of awkward to carry around. 

Well, that's another thing that helps you get, you know, when you're hitchhiking. It was good. How about your rat hat? 

That helped, too. 

So people knew if you were a tech boy or your boy's high boy that they were okay. That meant you were a decent kid, right? 

It wasn't any problem, you know, hitchhiking. You wasn't worrying about... I've had people tell me they didn't mind wearing their rat hat at all because it meant a good ride. Yeah, well, we used to hitchhike over to Athens. 

You know, if you had your leather sweater, you could go out on Poncelain Avenue and the first car would pick you up. Billy, were you a good boy? 

Did you wear your rat hat? 

Yeah, I wore it. To not wear it would have been to incur the wrath of the upperclassmen, right? 

I guess. And who knows what would happen. Did you ever see anybody get a T-cut? 

I don't remember, really. You don't remember that either? 

A lot of people had their crew cuts anyway. I've seen pictures of a T-cut right at the top. 

Well, not a T -cut, just a crew cut. Just short hair. That's back in the days when there was hair and people worried about it a lot, huh? 

Or didn't. I didn't worry about it. Didn't worry about it. 

So you got there in the fall when that was the fifth most exciting time on campus. Oh, yeah. Football season. Football season. How were we doing? 

You had Bobby Dodd for a head coach. Yeah. Dodd was a coach. 

But I don't think, 48, we're not too good. 

So it wasn't a big deal. It wasn't until about early. In the 50s. Oh, yeah, yeah. By 50, 51. The freshman class in 48 and 49. I mean, they got pretty good. Yeah. And they came up, because I know we had, those were the glory days. Right. The golden years. I think 52 was the perfect season. Yeah. That was the perfect season. Right. 

So you were there at a really good time. I mean they were developing the team, there was a lot of excitement. Right. 

But I was just there one year. I started working after my freshman year. 

Well what happened with the academics of Georgia Tech? 

Were you prepared? 

I guess I was. You did okay? 

Well. Do you remember any professor from there at all? 

No, not really. You don't? 

Yeah, Mr. Sykes, a science government teacher. We do remember that name. Did you ever encounter George Griffin? 

Oh, yeah. 

Well, I knew his son. I knew Paige. He was in school with you? 

Right. 

But did you know? 

Paige went to North Fulton. Did you know George? 

Well, I knew. You knew of him? 

I knew of him, I guess, yeah. No encounters with him? 

No, I don't think so. Anybody else memorable at your time there? 

Coach Plaxico, and Coach Dodd. 

So, did you ever... And Norris Dean was the track coach. 

So he was the one that you were actually running on. Right. Because Plaxico, he was a freshman coach. How did you do? 

Were you pretty good at track? 

I did all right. I made a letter, you know. 

Well, that's great. You made a letter. 

I know when I got the letter, it had 52 on the sweater with a wing, like running, and I saw that sweater with 1952, I said, that will never come. This was 1948. It seemed like too far away from it. 1952 seemed like forever. Isn't that funny? 

Four years, but you were just impatient to get on with life. Yeah. What prompted you to get a job? 

Well, it was just a summer job. 

So that summer, you got through your first year of tech fine. Mm -hmm. Your plan was to come back in the fall? 

Well, during the summer. You had to get a job. 

Well, no, I didn't have to, but I always did. Always did. And how did you get the job you got? 

Well, I knew the owner of the company. Who was who? 

Elwin Tomlinson. And how did you know Mr. Tomlinson? 

Well, I guess through his daughter. I mean, I knew his son and his daughter, kind of, I guess, through the high school fraternities. 

So they were in your part of the city? 

No, they lived on Habersham Road. That's not your part of the city. That wasn't part of the city at the time. 

But somehow you met? 

She was a member of a sorority. And she would be whom? 

Let's give her a name. Catherine. Catherine Tomlinson. Okay. Were you dating her then? 

We dated, yeah, a little bit. A little bit? 

All right. 

And somehow or other you decided you were going to go apply for a job? 

Well, yeah, another friend of mine, Hugh Dudley and Billy Warren, Hugh went to Tech and Billy went to Emory. 

But Mr. Thompson always hired, you know, friends, you know, he just gave us a job. he didn't didn't really need us but he just where was it located right across from the Biltmore Hotel on the corner of Spring and I mean 5th and West Pete Street where the Georgia Tech business that used to be a car dealers that was capital automobile the whole block me down with it the hotel and boy have you seen the changes the body shop was on Spring Street where the parking lot is What did he hire you to do? 

I think we made $135 a month. I think it was by the hour, I'm sure, but that was our pay, I think. What did you do for it? 

A mechanic helper, a gopher, really. 

Okay, so you put old clothes on and you went in there and if the guys could get me a wrench, you got them a wrench. Yeah, go get some spark plugs and go do this and go do that. or go move that car or go get this car. We worked in the new car get ready where they prepped the new cars. 

And then he moved me around, moved to the parts department for a couple of weeks, the used car department for a couple of weeks, the service for a couple of weeks. 

So I just went up. That whole industry was like. 

And told me in the summer, he said, what are your plans? 

I said, I don't have any plans, I'm going to school. And Mr. 

Thomason, I guess he liked me, and he said, well, if you can work out your schedule and work part time, I'd like for you to consider that. 

So I did, but I couldn't work it out at Tech. 

So I transferred it to Georgia State. How did your parents feel about that? 

They were fine. They didn't care? 

No. 

But I went to school half a day and worked half a day. Which is something that Georgia State was more accommodating for. 

I'd go to school in the morning and go to the company at, you know, say one o'clock, one to five or something. Did you have your own car yet? 

Well, you got a car. I mean, they let you drive a car. And I didn't have a car. 

So that was pretty big incentive. 

Well, I did. I bought my first car that first summer. There? 

Yeah. What did you buy? 41 Plymouth. Your first car was the 41 Plymouth? $400 for it. And that took you to GSU and then back to the capital? 

That took me anywhere I wanted to go. A pretty good car? 

Yeah, it was a green four-door sedan. And what did he have you doing? 

Did he give you more opportunities? 

Well, yeah. I was a used car salesman. I sold used cars. How does a person train to be a used car salesman? 

Just by doing, just by... 

So being familiar with each automobile and being a salesman. Yeah, and then watching the older, me and the men that were working there permanently. 

So you're 19 years old. People would buy cars from a 19-year-old? 

I wouldn't buy a car from a 19-year-old. You wouldn't. 

Well they'd seen that car, I was selling cars for $1,500 or $1,000. 

But you wouldn't have bought a car from a 19 year old, and yet that was happening right there under you. 

Well I did it for three years. And you could make a living doing that? 

Well yeah I made, yeah. A partial living, because you were going to school. I was going to school. You were still living at home. Yeah, still living at home. Not married. 

I was making a lot of money, I mean as far as compared to, because other guys were not making anything. You were doing really good then financially. 

Did you get bit by the car industry right off the bat? 

Kind of, I mean I just kind of worked into it, I fell into it, it was there and there was just something I did you know. 

And it felt okay? 

Yeah it felt fine and the company was a good company and I liked the people there. 

So it felt comfortable? 

Yeah Tell me about Mr. Tomlinson. He ultimately became your father-in-law, but not when you met him. Right. Tell me a little bit about him now. You told me he might have gone to Georgia Tech. 

Well, he went to Georgia Tech, I think, probably a class in 1918. 

So he would have been there. And then he went to work for Georgia Power or Southern Bell or something, I believe. He didn't start in the automobile industry. 

But he did work for D. C. Black, which is a Buick company out in Decatur, and he was a retail salesman. 

So he started out doing that, and then got interested. Right, and then from there he went to the Cadillac dealership, which is Martin Cadillac. Where was that located? 

It was on West Peachtree Street, but I don't know exactly. Right there in the area? 

Not the same, but it was closer to town, closer to Pine Street, I believe. Okay. 

But he went to Martin Cadillac as the Cadillac sales manager and had the opportunity to buy the business in 1931 with the help of Motors Holden. 

Motors Holden would put up 75% of the money, and you put up 25, And then you kind of run the business, you run it the way they want you to run it. 

So it's a franchise, but with very strong company control. Right. And you buy the stock back. 

Okay, as you can. As you can. You retire the stock. And the idea is eventually, you know, you're going to own it. 

And then do you do by your own rules? 

You don't have to follow their rules anymore? 

Once you buy them out, I mean, it's... It's yours. And Hicks Green Buick started that way. Mitchell Motors started that way. It was a new way to get going. Yeah, most every dealership, old dealership in Atlanta, started with the help of Motors Holding. Okay. 

You mentioned Motors Holding was a General Motors, but could the other cars, dealers, besides General Motors cars? 

No, I mean, they would... Because Christchurch wasn't a General Motors car. They probably had their own... They had their own kind of stuff. Kind of. And Ford Motor Credit. 

So he started out buying Martin Cadillac. And changed it to Capital Automobile Company. 

So he's the one who created the name for it. Right. And at that time they sold Oldsmobile too. It was Cadillac Old. And he had the franchise for that one too. Right. 

And did he keep it up on West Peachtree near Pine Street? 

They moved up to West Peachtree in 5th in 1938, I believe. 

Okay, so by the time you came to work there, he had only been there 10 years then. 

But it was clearly well established. He had a showroom. Right. Body shop. Right across from the Biltmore Hotel. Right. Because the Biltmore, I know, was way before then. It covered about three blocks from 5th Street down to Interstate 75. Which was not there. Interstate 75 was, no. 

So it was three blocks deep, not front-wise, the front-wise on West Peachtree Street. I know the story, I've always heard that the property was owned by the Campbell Foundation. 

And he bought, that's where he eventually bought it from, but he had a budget of $30,000 to build the dealership. And he said he spent all he could spend, and he got on to spend $28,000. He just couldn't spend. He had money left over. He had $2,000 left over. Wow, isn't that something? 

What a long way a buck went in those days. That's right. 

So he built the actual showroom himself. 

I mean, he saw what was the building of the showroom, plus all the mechanical quarters of it, and plus land space to put the cars, right? 

The lots. 

Well, he eventually bought a decision to start with. He just had that, just the one block on a fifth. 

So if in 1958 I was a veteran and I had money to spare and I was going to get me a new car, that's one of the places I'd come in. 

Well, it was the only place you could get a Cadillac. 

In the whole city of Atlanta? 

Well, not the whole city, but we were a Cadillac distributor, and they had 12 little dealers under them. 

Okay, so that's a different thing altogether than it was in a... It was a Cadillac distributorship. 

Meaning that cars are purchased wholesale and then put out? 

Well, we had a territory, you might say, of maybe a hundred and fifty mile radius of Atlanta. Which meant General Motors would sell you the Cadillac and then you could parse them out. We had a contract with a deal in Athens, Georgia. Athens, Rome, Tekoa, Lagrange. 

If you're a salesman and you're doing that, you farm stuff out, you make more money because you make a profit on everything then. Right. You buy the car. 

We made a profit on every car that was sold, that they sold, because they had a contract with us, not GM. I see. 

So that's a good way to be, to make it very successful then, because it hinges on a lot of places, not just on your own place. 

I'm still trying to picture that car dealership right there on 5th Street and West Peachtree, which now of course we know is the College of Management. Right. Wow. I've got a picture of it. Oh I want to see that picture. That sounds really interesting how that might have all been that way. What a different time, a different time and place. That was a bustling business area then, that corridor. It was. West Peachtree was a bustling corridor. And Spring Street with a lot of used car lots. Both sides, West Peachtree and Spring Street. Most of the used car lights were on Spring Street between 5th and the Varsity. How long did Capitol Cadillac stay there? 

Until 1980. Until 1980? 

Wow, you've been there for a long time now. We moved to Marietta in December of 1980. And why? 

To get more room, to build new showrooms, everything different? 

Well, Mr. 

Tomlinson died in 1964, and they were going to do away with all the distributorships in the whole country, and they gave him a five-year warning that in 1965, you know, everybody's going to be a direct dealer. That was the change in the automobile industry. Right. Right. 

But if the principal died before that time, it changed right then. 

So it changed. Right. Mr. Thompson died in January of 64. And all of a sudden you weren't a distributorship. You were just a sole dealer. We were a direct dealer. And we were the only dealer in town. By that time you had worked your way up into the company. Right. I was the wholesale manager at that time. We were looking after the smaller dealers. 

But I bought an interest in the company in 1964, along with my two brother -in-laws and my wife. 

Well, the four of us bought it. 

So the family took it over from him. And my older brother-in-law, who also went to Tech, class of 58, I believe, he became the dealer. He ran it until Thanksgiving of 1977 when he was killed in an automobile wreck. We had a buy-sell agreement and so I took it over in 78. 

So then it was your decision to make the move? 

To move. And they were going to put another dealer, well we were the only dealer for a long time until 64. And within three months they put in the second dealer in Atlanta. And so then there's competition. 

But on the same token, the city was getting bigger, more development going through more Well, they were doing this in every big city, like Houston or Dallas or Washington. By the time they moved out here in 1980, there was a pretty big population moving out this way. Right. 

So it wasn't like you were going out into the country. And they wanted it. 

Well, everybody was moving out of downtown. There wasn't any dealership. 

Well, it was getting so that it was very congested on the roads. 

But they were going to make Spring Street, make it one way, and make West Beach Street one way. And up to that time, it had been both of them. Yeah, right. 

So all of that had been done. And it was an old facility. By that time it was. Right. And so he made the decision to move out here. Let's go back to Mr. Tomlinson. He would have been called a pioneer then in car sales in Atlanta. He was one of the original, yeah, 1931. 

I asked you about the Ford factory, because I know that there's apartments now that are called the Ford factory apartments, but that literally was a factory, wasn't it? 

Right. And they were manufacturing Fords. Ford. 

So was it an assembly plant? 

Yeah. Ford assembly. Right there in that little skinny building. How long did they do that? 

How did they do that? 

That's interesting. I don't know. 

Were there any other factories producing or assembling cars in Atlanta at that time? 

I don't think at that time. Of course, Doravelle had been here a long time. Not that early. Not that long. And then the Haightville Ford assembly plant. They probably weren't there that early. I don't know what year it went in. None of them were there in 1931. No. They weren't there that early. No. Tell me this. Where did the Cadillacs come from? 

They came from Detroit. They were all made in Detroit. And how did they get them here? 

They would come by carrier. 

So they had already had those big car carriers there. 

So you would order the cars and they would be shipped to you. And some of them were shipped by rail, but most of them were by carrier. Post-World War II is when the car boom along with the people boom and everything else. Yeah. 

Well, during the war, I think the Navy had the showroom for that NAVCAD program. And the body shop was a cafeteria, I think. And they sold a few used cars. Because there was nobody here to buy the cars, plus nobody had any cars. They weren't making any cars, either. They weren't making any cars. They were making tanks and things like that. 

So he leased the showroom out to the Navy. To the Navy, huh. 

What were they showing off? 

Well, it was where they had their NAVCAD, Naval Air Cadet, where young guys would take the physical and mental. It was a recruiting station, more or less. No cars at all. And for an interim of how many years did that happen? 

Well, I guess 41 to 45. And how did Mr. Tomlinson survive without his business? 

He had the rent from the... Because the Navy was paying. Yeah, they were paying him rent, yeah. 

So those were really dark years for business owners. Oh, yeah. I never thought about that before. Because nobody was buying cars in the middle of the war, that's for sure. No. What a different time, huh? 

It sure was. Yeah. 

So really, they didn't get cranked up until, you know, to 46, really. 

So in 1980, when you moved up here, you sold the property? 

Right. Tomlinson would, or Capital Auto would have owned the property. Yeah, we sold it to the First Baptist Church. Really? 

They bought it in the program Peachtree. Yeah. 

Well, they assembled about 15 acres. They had some kind of grand plan that they were going to do something. Yeah, yeah. 

And then did they tear it down or did the dealership? 

No, they used it for a TV ministry for a while. Really? 

So it had another life again. They used the showroom. I don't know whether the Georgia Tech Foundation bought it from the church or I'm not sure. We sold it to the church in 1978. You sold it before you even moved in promise of money. They had to sell it in order to move. In order to move, yeah. I suppose you did. I suppose you did. And just came out and speculated that this would be a growth. 

You had no idea what probably was going to be as big as it was going to be, did you? 

No, we didn't, but Ed Valls had moved out to Oldsmobile, John Smith Chevrolet was downtown, they had moved out here. 

Okay, so this was going to be like Car Alley. In Boomershine, they were on Spring Street, in West Peach Street. The Boomershine building I remember because of that. And they were next door. I mean, there were some dealerships out there. Their building just did go down when they started the Ivan Allen Plaza area. Yeah, that's right. for a long time. And I met you at Motors was towards town from that. Over off of Ellison? 

Oh, West Peacht Street. West Peacht Street. Oh, it was on West Peacht Street? 

Mm-hmm. Which was the one that was on Piedmont, across from the hotels there? 

That was Beaudry. Oh, that was Beaudry. Yeah, they just went out of business. They just closed it. There were lots of car dealers after a while, but your father-in-law was the beginning one. Right. Tell me about your courtship. 

How did that come about? 

You just dated now and then? 

We just met in high school and we dated, well she went to Vanderbilt, I guess I started dating her when, I know I took her to get her driver's license when she was 16. 

So you've known her forever. And we dated from, I guess from 1950, I don't know, maybe before that, 49. 

We dated 49 to 54 I guess, and she went to Vanderbilt for three years, and then we got married in June of 54. In 54, okay. Right. And you started a family. That's right. And from there we had five children. 

The first one was born in 56, I think. 56, 58. Oh, I'm not going to hold you accountable for that. We better not go anywhere on that one. 

But let's talk about them. Your oldest child was? 

A daughter, Catherine. Catherine. 

Catherine, and she went to Westminster, graduated from Westminster, and then graduated from Davidson College, and she's married and has three children. And her last name is now? 

It's Miller, Catherine Miller. And the next child was William, who graduated from Westminster. 

And William's the third? 

William is the third, and he went to the University of Virginia and graduated in the 80s. 

Well, good for you for remembering that. Wow. And then he came to work for the company in 1980, and he's been here ever since. He's now the dealer. Oh, okay. Been the dealer for about four years. 

Okay, so now he's capital auto. 

And then he married his high school sweetheart, and he went to Westminster and North Carolina, and they have three boys. Okay. 

The third is Elwin. He was named after his grandfather. After his grandfather. 

He graduated from Woodward and then University of South Carolina where he met his wife and they have two children. Okay. What does he do first? 

He's the Saturn dealer. We also sell Saturn. Oh, so he went into the Albums of Undersed. 

Well, he first came to work for Capitol, and then Walter, the fourth child, he graduated from Westminster and University of Georgia and came to work for the company. 

So he's in the honorable division. 

He runs the ****** division, and then the fifth child is Mary Kate, who also graduated away from Westminster and University of Georgia, and married her high school sweetheart, and they have two children. And her last name now is Hughes. She married Jo Hughes. 

If we add up all those children, we end up with 12 grandchildren. 12 grandchildren. Right. 

And I'm not going to ask you how old they are, and I'm not going to ask you their names, but what's the oldest one's age? 

The oldest is a girl. She's a senior at Birmingham Southern. She's 21. She was 21. She was 21. And the youngest one? 

She was about five or six, seven. She's got a range. She's got a range from 21 to elementary school. Right. Wow. And I have a grandson at the University of Georgia who has been a tech supporter all his life. He accepted it to Georgia Tech and Wake Forest and Georgia and the last minute he goes to Georgia. My goodness. Don't understand. Don't know why. Don't know why. 

You haven't got a wreck out of the whole 12, but there's still a lot of young ones there, so who knows what's going to happen. 

But they all live here in Atlanta, all three boys in the business. 

Which is really interesting, and I mentioned to you before how fortunate you are to have your family so close at hand and have all your friends. And all five children have an interest in the company. They all have a financial interest. That's a good way to keep them in Atlanta, isn't it? 

Everybody be in the same industry. The automobile industry is definitely a Bridges family tradition coming from the Tomlins. I believe it is, right. 

And the changes that you have seen, if your father-in-law were to come back today to look at some of the vehicles that you sell today, like the Hummers, even the Saturns. Even Cadillac, what the Cadillac looks like now compared to what it... 

He would have thought it was incredible, wouldn't he? 

I mean, he would think today, what an incredible change. How could this be? 

And I guess it'll be, you know, 2025. Yeah. It'll just look like old time. Old time, yeah. It is definitely a changing industry. I mean, every day you pick up the paper and hear something, read something different. 

Today I was reading about the alternative fuels and how it's going to change all the engines to diesel engines so that they can burn corn and peanuts and whatever else. 

You know, if we're going to stop having the oil dependency in foreign countries, I guess people are going to start thinking that way. That's right. Unheard of times past, unheard of. Fifty years ago, no way anybody would have thought of that, and now here it is. 

So if there's one thing you can say about life, it's that it's always changing. It's going to change, that's right. It's going to change. That's right. That's for sure. Have you enjoyed the experience of being a part of this industry? 

I have, I really have. You've been in every part of it. 

Yeah, and I guess I've been retired for three or four years, but if I'm in town, I'll be in the office. I don't have any responsibility. 

Well, you're chairman of the board. That's a responsibility. 

But the boys are doing a good job. And William, he's on the National Dealer Council, which I've been on that several times. 

So he's following in your footsteps. Right. His name is, I mean Bridget's name is known in Cadillac, in Detroit. Because you've been so successful in all these years. I was involved for 20 -something years, I mean, on the national level, and now William is doing it. 

So starting with Mechanics Helper, standing up Chairman of the Board is what we call a true American success story, isn't it? 

And you've never lived anywhere but Atlanta. No. And surrounding areas. We lived in a house that all the children grew up in. We were there 36 years. And you're still living in Atlanta. I live about a mile from where they all grew up. 

So when you think about it, you've seen a lot of changes in the city, too. You've seen everybody run away from the city, and now they're all storming back. Everything changes, nothing stays the same. That's the truth. And it's been a good place for you to be reared yourself and to bring up your own children. And now you see grandchildren being brought up here. I wouldn't want to change very much. 

Well, you know, it's a lucky man that can say that. Right. 

Well, I've been fortunate. It's a lucky man that can say that I would walk the same path and do the same thing. 

And it's also become unusual for someone to come into a profession and stay with that for an extended period of time. 

Well, I learned a lot from my father -in-law, too. I mean, I have great respect for him. He taught me a lot. I mean, he taught me everything I know about automobiles. And he had good business principles and a good honest, you know, just a good person. For him, it was a very ethical business. Oh, yes. It wasn't about cheating anybody. It was about... No. And it was important to the city to have those kinds of things. Right. 

If we didn't do it right, we wouldn't be here, you know, for 75 years. I guess we've been doing something right. That 75 years is a long time to be in a business. Right. 

What do you suppose your typical client was like back in 1931? 

It was the, that was buying Cadillacs when Mr. Tomlinson was selling Cadillacs. He probably sold Cadillacs to all the important, shall we say, important people of Atlanta. Yeah. 

Well, I know the first new Cadillac I sold was in 1949 and it was about $3,300 and that was a branch. She'll wish you could buy it now for that. Yeah. I sold it to Howard Candler. Of the Candlers? 

Of the Candlers. Of the Coca -Cola family. 

I was thinking you were probably selling to the Candlers and the Allens and the people, you know, prestigious. Yeah. Howard Allen has always been a real good customer. Did you get to know Mr. Allen? 

Oh, yeah. He bought a new car every year, whether it'd have 5,000 miles or 10,000 miles. He wanted a new car. Boy, it would have been fun to buy his used car. Yeah. A lot of people did. People waiting for it. Because they would know he was going to do that. 

But there were a lot of people like that, too. I mean, not a lot, but there were a lot of... There were certain clients you had that would renew their... Trade every year, regardless, every two years. 

So you'd get to know them fairly well, then. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What they were in the market for that year. We sold families' cars, you know, 15, 20 cars. Isn't that something? 

Yeah. 

Now see, somehow or other I don't think of a car as a commodity that you have a family dealing with. Like an annuity. Yeah. It almost was for you, yeah, that they would come back year after year after year. Repeat business is what I'm getting at. And then we were the only deal in town from 1931 to 65. That helped. Yeah. That's right. And I think once you get established, people often do what their daddy did, too. If their daddy bought the car from you, then they're likely to come back and buy the car from you. 

In fact, I would imagine it was a rite of passage for some families in Atlanta as they became prosperous enough to afford a Cadillac. That's what they would do. Right. I don't know. I think the times have changed a lot now. I don't know that that's as important to us. 

Of course our families are so diverse and they move everywhere and they don't stay, so all that changed. You didn't advertise cars the way you do now. No, we really never advertised a whole lot anyway. 

Now see that's an interesting thing, because now. 

But you do now. That's all it is, is car dealer ads when you turn on the television. I mean it's just every kind of car. I mean, there's nothing to look at like a Bill Hurd Chevrolet. he'll have five full pages in the newspaper in color. Not the dealers, but the manufacturers, you know, like Honda and Toyota and Ford. Their rivalries are huge. The ad budgets, you just wouldn't believe. 

What you have to do. Or what, say, Cadillac spends nationally. 

Yeah, everybody has to come up with the gimmick or the logo or the music that'll make people think of it, you know. And sometimes people know that without even knowing the name of the vehicle. That's right. It's really funny how those look. Volkswagen has been really good about that. Drivers want it and they're a little funny thing. And it isn't for any one dealer, it's just for the vehicle itself. 

Now does a dealer still have to budget a lot of money towards what's going to go in print? 

Yeah. And some of them even do take television ads. 

Well, it's expensive, too. 

So it's part of what makes a video go round. 

Well, a full-page ad in the journal is about $12,000 for one issue. You've got to sell a whole lot of stuff off that page to justify it. That's right. 

But to not do it. 

But we did word-of-mouth advertising more. In the old days. In the old days. Yeah, in the old days. A customer satisfaction. 

But today the customer is not as loyal. Most of the people that live in Atlanta now, they weren't here 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Never heard of Capital Cadillac. 

So the fact that you were in business for 75 years and that you had a loyal following doesn't have anything to do in the marketplace today. Not as much as it did. You're competing for the dollar just like everyone else. 

So your son is in a different business than you were. That's right. And you were in a different business than your father. Right. It's interesting how that happens, isn't it? 

Sure is. 

So where do you see the future of car dealerships? 

Well, I hope the future of the, you might say the Ma and Pa dealership, I mean the single family, family owned dealers, they are slowly going by the wayside. Will they be owned by conglomerates? 

Yeah, conglomerate. It's kind of shaking now with the big three, Ford and Jim and Chrysler. All of them looking like they're closing plans. They're not making any money. 

Well, they're losing. They're losing money. I keep hearing they're losing tons of money. 

So what's going to happen? 

Jim's going to make it. I mean, they'll be all right. And so will Ford. and everybody makes a good car. I mean, there's not any bad cars made. The competition has just gotten... The foreign competition. People are not buying American. They're buying foreign cars. 

But some foreign cars are made here, though. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like the Hondas and the Toyotas are made in the United States. Some of them are made in Georgia and Tennessee and Alabama. They employ American workers and do Alabama. 

Well, GM, you know, in the 50s, General Motors had 55% of the market, and now they've got about 25. 

So what's going to happen in 20 years from now? 

Well, they just better hold on to 20 to 25% of the market. Or they're going to go out of business. Or they're going to be out of business, right. 

What do you think about what I'm reading and seeing of the China syndrome? 

Well, that's the biggest market, yeah. 

But it's the biggest threat on that. When they start making their own cars, which they're now just starting to do, they'll stop importing. I guess there are Ford and GM factories right in China making cars. 

But what happens when, I mean, it changes everything, because they work for less money than American workers do. That's true. 

What's going to happen to all of that? 

If we knew, we could be prophets, right? 

But it is a time to be scared. It is a time to say, wow, you know, wow, the whole thing's going to change. It's not going to be like it used to be. It changes every day, I guess. Yeah, yeah. They're going to have to think in a different, outside the box. Is that what we say now? 

That's right. It's not going to be, nothing's like your daddy's world anymore. That's right. Everything changes. Maybe you got out of this just in time. 

Well, I mean, I know it's kind of like somebody asked Junior McCall about if you retired. When did you retire? 

He said, well, I meant controlled retirement. Controlled retirement. Controlled retirement. Controlled retirement. Gradually. You're just going to take your time, one step at a time. That's right. Gradually step aside. because his son is running his business now. You keep a hand in because you have the wisdom and the experience. 

But it changes much faster now than it did 25 years ago. You know, you might have had changes that you saw on an annual basis. 

Now, like you said, every day. 

Now it's certainly on a weekly basis. Something breaks every week that changes the market, changes the demand. 

You know, fighting the war, the fighting over the oil and the petroleum products and all that's going to have to change some of the things here. 

Are we going to go bankrupt or poor? 

Is America going to stay a power, or are we going to lose our power to other nations? 

Who knows? 

Who knows? 

Yeah, who knows? 

Nobody really knows. It's kind of an exciting time, and it's kind of a scary time. Both. But, yeah, you want to be careful about stepping too fast into turning away from it. And for you, especially since your whole family is part of the whole thing. Did dealers get together and talk about this? 

Oh, yeah, yeah. 

Is it a worrisome thing for them? 

Where are we going with this? 

What's happening? 

It's something Mr. Tomlinson sure didn't have to worry about. No, he didn't have to worry about it. He was here in the gravy times. Everybody was going to get a car. That was the whole deal. Right. 

Well, it's been an interesting story. You certainly had the catbird seat for the whole change in the industry, haven't you? 

I guess so. Because you were back far enough to know what his experience was in the late 20s and 30s. You were alive, but not aware, but from him you did learn about something. 

And now you can project yourself into what your grandchildren are going to be seeing or what they're going to be riding. It's all kind of scary. It's all unknown. Unknown. A lot of unknowns. It's been a good ride. It has, yeah. And as you said, you can't, you're a lucky man, you wouldn't have changed much. If anything. None of the big things. 

We've been very fortunate to have the five healthy children and all healthy grandchildren in a good family business. That's very, very fortunate. These are the things you can't buy. Right. 

So they're gifts. 

Well, it's been a pleasure coming to talk to you today. Thanks for sharing your stories about the industry and about your life. Glad to do it. It's a pleasure to have you as a part of our story. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Perfect. Oh, I don't hear perfect. Okay.