Still’s Auto Turns 60

What’s 60 years old and respected all over southwest Arkansas? Still’s Automotive of course! The iconic garage we started by Mr. and Mrs. Jewell Still, Sr. and still owned and operated by two Still sons, Jewell, Jr. and Don. Jewell and Don’s wives, Brenda and Betsy, are also active in the business.
“I started working when I was 14 and that was in ’59…I worked a little before school and after school…we all just kind of grew up here and learned how to do this under Dad” said Jewell Still. “Dad had been the shop foreman at the Chevrolet place for ten years before he came” said Jewell Still. “He was working on mostly General Motors stuff so that’s kind of what we specialized in all these years…and we just kind of got off into other stuff too, work on just about everything now” said Jewell..
The Still brothers say they’ve seen lots of changes. “Back then we didn’t have any computerized cars and a lot cars didn’t even come with air-conditioning. We used to install air-conditioner kits in cars” said Jewell Still. He said power steering wasn’t there in the beginning and V-8 engines weren’t very plentiful. “Everything now is electronic, everything is controlled by computers and you’ve got have comupter scanners and machinery to keep up with it” said Jewell Still. He said the first sign of computerized components came in the late 60’s and in the last twenty year’s it’s really grown.
The Stills have some different ideas on whether they dislike a particular car. Jewell Still doesn’t have a car he dislikes. He said “we worked on just about any kind of car back through the years…course, the earlier Fords and Dodges and all of them were fairly easy to work on because they didn’t have any electronics on them, they were just plain old cars”. Brother Don Still said he didn’t enjoy working on German cars. Don Still said evidently he really loved his wife Betsy because “she was driving a Volkwagen when we met”. The Stills have also worked on a number of cars not seen today. “We worked on some Packards…we worked on Edsels…there was a just a lot of old cars that faded out over the years” said Jewell. When asked what his favorite car to work on, Jewell quickly answers “Chevrolet!”. He said they work on a lot of foreign cars and says that started in the 60’s and 70’s. “There’s about as many foreign cars as there are American cars now but we like working them, too” says Jewell Still.
The Still brothers say they enjoyed working with their parents in the business. Jewell said their Dad was “easygoing”. Don Still his Dad had a really good business and there was always something to do. Don says “someone asked me when there was a slow time and I can’t ever remember a slow time…maybe in 1959!”. Don says he, his brother Randy and his brother Jr. (Jewell, Jr.) always had a job “waiting on us”. Don says it was a blessing growing up with his parents and working with them. He said he enjoyed when his Dad retired and people stopped by to visit with him. “Growing up and understanding, from my Dad, how to handle customers, how he almost cared more for the customers than the cars” says Don Still. “That’s what I learned from him more than anything, cars can come and go but customers…you have to take care of them all the time”.
Both Don and Jewell have advice for people interested in operating a long-lived business. Don said “advertising is key but word of mouth is better than anything else…I was always proud of my dad, he had a good reputation of taking care of people…he set the bar pretty high…you just do the best you can everyday”. Jewell laughs and says “you’ve got to really like to work if you’re going to last 60 years”. Jewell says he still works an average of ten hours five days a week. Don says “when my Dad was here all the parts stores closed at 5pm…well my Dad, 5 o’clock was the time to see what parts you needed so you can work on them a little longer”. Don continues “Jr. and I were talking about that, there were a lot of nights you’d get home at 8 or 9 o’clock…my Dad liked to work”. Jewell says that older age group liked to work and he liked to work 60 hours a week. Jewell said after supper “we’d hang around about 15 or 20 minutes and he’d say let’s go work awhile longer”.
Jewell says they appreciate all the people that stuck with them and they still have a few customers who have been coming to them for sixty years. “We appreciate all those customers that have been loyal to us all these years and we hope we’ve done ’em right…we try to be honest with them and treat them right”. Don says they’ve gone back through some of their old tickets recently and have smiled remembering some of their old customers who are gone now. Don said “we just think of all the customers who have come and gone…like Jr. says, we appreciate the customers we have and hope we treat the community right”