Meeting Dave of Dave's Car Care, Glendale, Arizona


As someone who's interested in the history of Phoenix, I realize that it's a very fine line between talking about a businesses and promoting them. In fact, I'm more comfortable talking about a defunct company, like Valley Bank, than one that's still in business. And I think that it gives the illusion that most businesses don't last in Phoenix, and that's not true.

Yesterday I went with a friend to Dave's Car Care in Glendale. I just went along for the ride, and to give moral support, and while my friend was talking to the guy behind the counter, I was wondering, "I wonder if that's Dave?" It was.

I get a big kick out of meeting someone who's name is on the sign of a business. I guess I expect businesses either to have fictional names, or that someone sold it to someone who sold it to someone, etc. I think I became suspicious of asking if the person whose name is on the sign from watching "Happy Days" in the 1970s, after the episode where the owner explains that it would have been too expensive to replace the sign "Arnold's", and besides, it was a sign and name that people knew and recognized.

In the course of the conversation between my friend and the guy behind the counter at Dave's Car Care, he just said, "I'm Dave", and it made me smile. When their business was finished being conducted I made a point to go over and shake his hand, and I asked permission to take a photo of their business hours. No, I'm not going to show you a photo of Dave - that's kind of an invasion of privacy, you know. I gave him one of my history adventuring cards, with the assurance that I wasn't selling anything, and I got the usual look. He may want not to admit that 38 years in Glendale makes his business "historic", but I think that it does. It weaves into the day-to-day life of the city, and to me that's much more important than anything else.

I like my neighborhood, and I'm one of those people who never had to be told to "buy local". I don't own a car anymore, so Dave won't be getting my business, but whatever money I have I try to spend locally. I've always felt that way, even when I lived in Los Angeles, that these people are my neighbors. They live here, work here, are raising their families here, go to church here. Yes, of course there are bad guys everywhere, but they really are in the minority. Most of the people are good guys, even people who repair cars.

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