Tommie Oldham was born and raised in Glendon. There weren’t any automobile dealers in that small upper Moore County village, sleeping by the railroad tracks between talc mines and the mill.
When he was ready to buy his first car, Oldham went down to the Pinehurst Garage and drove home in a 1952 Chevrolet Bel Air.
At that time, the General Motors dealership was owned, along with virtually everything else in the village, by Pinehurst Inc. itself. The Tudor-styled half-timbered building, built in 1923, sported a showroom where Oldham saw a car like he wanted. He ordered one with the accessories he liked and came back to pick it up when it came in.
So began a series of Oldham/Chevy pairings made over the years in that same showroom.
“I just got it paid for, and traded it for a ’54,” he says. “Both of them Bel Airs. Charlie Cheek was the salesman, and he was a neighbor of mine all his life. He worked there all his life, well into the mid-sixties. I bought cars from him; my brother bought cars from him.”
In those days, cars came with custom trim according to a purchaser’s whim. People seldom bought cars from dealer stock.
“That ’54, I ordered it from the factory just like I wanted it with all the accessories the way I wanted it,” he recalls. “Powerglide, bumper guards, tinted glass, electric windows and seats — which were rare in a ’54. I kept it until I got a ’62, and a fellow talked me out of it.”
In 1962 Oldham returned to that same showroom looking to buy a car.
“They had a two-door, and right over behind it they had a four-door,” he said. “I liked the two-door, that’s the one I got.”
Not that one, of course. A custom 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air, with options.
“I had to order mine, though,” he said. “Just like I wanted it. I wanted one with all the accessories I put on it, white with red interior. Two aerials on fender skirts. You don’t see those much.”
The wait began.
“It took about six weeks, and Charlie called me,” Oldham says. “My wife Faye took me over, and I picked it up.”
Having loved and lost two Bel Airs already, Oldham said he had already decided to keep this one from the day he picked it up, and told his wife his plan.
“I told her this is not an everyday drive-to-work car,” he says. “We just use this weekends and holidays. That’s why it has only such low miles on it.”
Clark Chevrolet moved new Cadillacs out of the way to make room for this honored guest.
It isn’t the first time a classic car has come back for a visit. Many an old customer has brought a car back to the company for restoration. In one of the paint buildings out back, Carthage Mayor Larry Caddell said he has his own Chevrolet Bel Air, in for a fresh coat of factory-correct enamel.
There are pictures of cars and customers from former days hanging in the shop. Clark told The Pilot he was able to purchase the dealership when ClubCorp bought Pinehurst a few years ago only because GM will not allow a corporation to own a dealership franchise.
His son, Troy Clark, is now the Chevrolet dealer in Pinehurst. They have spent a considerable sum restoring the venerable structure, and plan to be showing cars in that same old showroom for many years to come.
“They say it isn’t a good location, we aren’t on a highway or beside a mall,” he says. “But we have so many good customers in so many states who like to deal with us.”
The dealership has seen many a customer over the long years. One man had worked there putting in the floor when the showroom was first built. Years later, Clark said, he returned to buy a car off the floor he’d helped to make so long ago.
“He bought a Cadillac,” Clark said.
Most of his customers today don’t keep their cars nearly as long as Oldham, of course.
His 1962 Bel Air was standing on that same old showroom floor. The floor has been restored and redone several times. But the car remained untouched, yet looking as new as the day it first rolled onto it, chrome gleaming in the midday sun.
“Today I took it back,” Oldham says. “Forty years later, it was back in the showroom, still looking good, original paint, all original.”
Oldham still has the original cardboard 20-day tag and bill of sale. The original brake pads are still on the car. He’s running on his second set of whitewall tires. Other than spark plugs and points, he’s not done any work on it at all. This is one car that has always been garaged when not on the road.
Oldham said he got a good deal when he bought it, too.
“They gave a discount if you paid cash,” he says. “I got it for $2,950. It listed for $3,500.”
But it isn’t for sale today, not even for full list price.
