Man has tinkered with engines all of his life

John Gray grew up tinkering with Model As and other cars, so it was a given that he would become a mechanic.

Gray, 82, worked at Drake’s Garage in Darlington for 45 years. The garage was started in the 1920s by Franke Drake, a longtime Darlington fire chief who died in 1963.

Gray took over when Drake died. But Drake’s widow, Bessie, continued to run the business side of the classic garage until she shut it down in 1988.

Her house was behind the garage. Each morning she maneuvered around mounds of old parts, blown motors and plenty of grease to reach her desk.

It was at the front of the garage and was lit by a bare light that dangled on a cord from the tin ceiling. She had a huge 1930s cash register, where she deposited money during the day. And most of the bills she mailed out were written in pencil. So were the envelopes.

Gray and a host of other mechanics through the years worked on cars in two cramped stalls. He had old parts strewn everywhere. The smudged wooden drawers that held the tools were always half open with the tools sticking out.

Among the mechanics who worked at Drake’s was Shorty, so named because he had lost both legs above the knees in a freak accident in the early 1950s.

Shorty walked on his hands. He had an advantage when it came to working on cars because he could sit on the fenders to get the job done.

And if need be, he could get right on top of the engine, shine his light down on it, and reach hard-to-find parts with ease.

Gray was a master at having cars stacked up that needed repairing. The garage was located on Dargan Street, so it wasn’t unusual to have cars blocking the narrow street at times.

But then a house across the street was torn down. When nothing replaced it, Gray found the empty lot a right convenient spot to park the ailing cars that were waiting patiently for his healing hands.

Gray’s memory is still sharp. Take, for instance, the first car he worked on at Drake’s.

“I reckon it was old man Sam Beckham’s 1937 Chevrolet,” he said. “I pulled the transmission out of it, fixed it and put it back.”

And what about the second car?

“I reckon that one was a 1933 Chevrolet that belonged to old man Charlie Howard,” he said. “I pulled the transmission out of it, too. I fixed it, and he was good to go.”

Gray worked for the city of Darlington for about 10 years when Drake’s closed its doors. Bessie Drake gave him all of the equipment in the garage.

“It’s a mess here,” Gray said during an interview in the garage behind his home. “But I got me an easy chair here, and I can take me a nap when I’m not piddling around with other things. I got me two outboard Johnson engines that came from Drake’s. Mr. Drake was one of the first Johnson dealers.”

Gray said he’s glad he retired when he did.

“All these computers they use now is the biggest change,” he said. “By granny, it used to be spark plugs, condensers, carburetors, wires and points. I rebuilt many a carburetor in my life.”