I HOW WEIRD IS WEIRD?
Byjoeth Zucco
Senior Editor
It was an early Monday morn
ing and the car lot was quiet.
Everything was in place — the
upside down billboard, the
clean, shiny cars and the “weird”
proprietor.
Wally Smith, tagged Weird
Wally by a friend, was in his
office cleaning his desk gnd
William Lauer/Daily Mmdun
Weird Watty conducts business via his Mickey Mouse phone.
getting ready for another day of
business. His Mickey Mouse
phone stood at attention, and
even rang once during our inter
view.
A stack of business cards sat
near the front of his desk. They
epitomized the personality: A
Herbie the Love Bug-type of car
chomping on Wally with only
his arms and legs free- In the
background the familiar bill
board seemed to say it all. And
on the back of the card the actual
address, 2323 P St., is replaced
with the phrase "On Wee Wee
Street.”
Although the business card,
billboards and lot are typical of a
typical used car salesman, Wally
said he’s not.
"Most can’t get away wiih
dressing the way I do,” he said,
relaxes in a white tee shirt and
Lee jeans. "I dress the way I do
because the cars are all low price
and I don’t want to out-dress the
customer. And I don’t want to
hang around in nice clothes
around old cars."
Except for a college student
who comes in to wash and clean
the cars, Wally is the only one at
the car lot and has to take care ot
problems that arise.
His interest in cars began as a
hobby. He started selling cars
from nis home. He dealt mainly
with special-interest cars -- mile
stone cars from the 1950s and
1960’s-- and also low-mileage
cars, which are 10- to 15-year
old cars that were owned by
older people who rarely drove
them. Wally would clean them
up and then sell them for little or#
no profit.
l5I was in it for the fun of the
chase,” Wally said. “The cars
come out of the estates negative
in terms of polish. It’s kind of
like a pretty woman putting on
makeup - she’s pretty without it,
but she’s beautiful with it on. It’s
the same with a car.”
The hobby turned into a job
14 years ago. Before that, he was
a city truck driver, an- over-the
road truck driver and briefly a
factory representativefor Ameri
can Tobacco Company. Wally
said he couldn’t cope with the
high pressure that went along
with being a representative, so
See WEIRD on 1?
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