Repairing Cars And Playing Golf

I never thought my automobile technician would retire.

Sure, Don Orris is 80. But you can stop by his D&L Auto along Seventh Street SE in Cedar Rapids any time of the day and find him there if he isn't out test driving a car he's repaired. He lives and breaths work -- sometimes stopping in the middle of the night to do bookwork but more often arriving by 5 a.m. after he's had coffee with friends. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

Most of Don's equipment will be auctioned off on Saturday, May 8, beginning at 10 a.m. at the shop. (To see photos and a list of equipment click here.) He'll still hang around until the end of June to make sure everybody picks up what they've bought and to do last-minute diagnostics for long-time customers.

If  you know Don, you know he loves to chat. That's the great thing about stopping in, which I've done for the last 15 years when he first worked on my 1984 Ford Ranger pickup. But, if you know Don, you also know he shuns publicity. The only way I convinced him to talk to me for a column was to promise it would be a way for him to thank his customers.

As Don told me, "I've had the best customers in the world and a lot of them have become my friends."

Since Don began working on cars in 1952, two major developments have occurred --  the end of full service gas stations and computerization. His station, of course, was full service. And, beginning in 1986, he went to as many classes as possible to become an expert at electronic diagnostics.

After working with Sinclair Refining Co. for three years, Don got his own station at the intersection of First Avenue and 14th Street NE. The station was only a year old at the time. Don ran it for 15 years, which were some of the best years of his life.

For one, he married his wife, Loretta, in 1953. ("Loretta is a sweetheart," Don says, "All the hours I put in, no complaints.") They have seven children. For another, Don made a lot of friends there. And, for still another, Don took up golf.

It was 1963, when Don put in extremely long days -- "You can't make money at a service station without being there." -- that he began suffering fatigue. He passed out one time while working on a melon truck. So, he went to a doctor who told him to relax, that maybe golf would help.

"What?" Don thought. "Pasture pool? It's time to get another doctor."

But Don spent $52 on a set of golf clubs (Sam Sneed Blue Ridge) with a bag and some golf balls. He set it in the corner of the shop, figuring he might get out to play some day.

That some day arrived when a good customer asked whose golf clubs were in the corner. When Don admitted they were his, the customer said his doctor told him the same thing. "We should get out and play some time."

The novices showed up at the old Jones Park golf course in Cedar Rapids one Sunday morning. They teed off and had a horrible time. Don says it took him 22 shots to make it to the green. His friend required 16 shots.

"You talk about sideways golf," Don laughs. "I saw the whole countryside."

On the second hole, flanked by a corn field at the time, Don and his playing partner sliced one ball after another into the corn.

"We lost all of our balls," he laughs. "Here we were done by the second hole."

But, they saw a couple of balls on the course and thought maybe a couple of their shots had bounced off a fence post. When they approached the balls to hit them, a couple of guys behind them yelled. Oops. They were about to hit somebody else's ball.

But, the second two-some was friendly and understanding. So friendly, in fact, they loaned Don and his partner golf balls to finish the round. And teh foursome played for years together.

The golf bug hit Don so hard that pretty soon he was complaining to the late George Nissen, he of trampoline fame, about not having anywhere to practice in the winter. Sure enough, the next day, a crew from George's trampoline company showed up at Don's station and took over the wash bay. They set up a trampoline in a verticle position, rigged up some netting and, voila, Don had an indoor golf driving range.

"It got to be pretty crowded in there some nights," Don says.

Then, one day, a golfer shanked a ball off a battery, into a guy's knee and through a window.

"That's when golf stopped," Don says. "It was a fun time, though."

Don did continue to play golf until 1993 when one day, because he was thinking about all he had to do at work, he simply walked off the course on the second tee.

Don has always had a few sets of clubs and a huge bucket of balls in his shop. They've been traded by friends for years. But, he hasn't played a round in 17 years.

Now that Don's is retiring, he plans to take up the game again. He's got a grandson who plays and hopes to get out with him. Maybe then he'll be able to relax.