Here's a story from The Roanoke Times, Roanoke, VA about my local John Deere dealer, S. G. Wimmer and Sons, of Christiansburg, VA.
CHRISTIANSBURG -- John Deere and Nelson Wimmer have a few things in common.
Deere was born on this very day, Feb. 7. Of course, that was 203 years ago in 1804.
Wimmer was born a day earlier, Feb. 6. The year was 1922. On Tuesday, he celebrated his 85th birthday.
Both Deere and Wimmer had sons named Charles who grew up to follow in their fathers' footsteps.
Deere's advice to his son was straightforward: Never put your name on anything that doesn't have your best effort.
And Wimmer's advice to his son was just as direct: "Get yourself a job doing something you like to do. If you like to hang on the back of the garbage truck -- **** it, do it."
Wimmer took his own advice.
He was once offered a job at Richardson's Funeral Home with a promise of managing the business one day.
"I don't like to be around dead people that well," he said. "That wasn't for me."
Wimmer knew what he wanted to do from the time he was 15. He joined his father, Stanley Garfield Wimmer, in the family business and never looked back.
And that proved to be Nelson Wimmer's most enduring tie to John Deere. Wimmer still reports to work each day at S.G. Wimmer & Son, Christiansburg's John Deere dealership since 1934 and a town landmark in each of the locations it's occupied.
"If he's not here by 7:30, we start looking for him," said Wimmer's son, Charles. "He stays till 5 every day. He's now got 70 years in."
Barry Nelson, manager of John Deere's Agricultural Marketing Division in Lenexa, Kan., cited S.G. Wimmer & Son as one of the oldest dealerships in the country.
"For them to have a business passed on from generation to generation is significant," he said.
Mary Leonard, spokeswoman for John Deere's world headquarters in Moline, Ill., said the company's products are marketed at approximately 2,900 locations in the United States and Canada. Of those, 1,577 sell agricultural gear.
"Good for him," Leonard said of Wimmer's long affiliation with John Deere, the company that started with the sweat of one blacksmith and last year reported total revenues of $22.1 billion. "That's what's keeping him young."
It's not hard for Wimmer to remember his youth.
"When I was young, I thought I'd never get to be 21," he said. "Since then, it's been a dream. I don't know where it went."
Wimmer spent his early years in Floyd County, where his grandfather ran a country store and his father farmed and delivered fresh goods to Roanoke each week.
Then his father was presented with an opportunity.
"I'll never forget it. Mr. Harry Word made two trips over to Huffville to see my dad. He had a business in town selling fertilizer and seed and farming supplies. He wanted to sell the business to my dad."
But Wimmer's father, like most country people in those days, had no money to buy into a business.
"Mr. Word said, 'You don't need no money. Just sign a paper,' " Wimmer recalled.
So Wimmer's father found himself commuting to Christiansburg to operate the store he bought on paper. That first store was on Franklin Street.
"I think it had to be in '32," Wimmer mused. "1932. That's when it was."
Wimmer's father eventually moved his family to town and Wimmer enrolled at Christiansburg High School.
"By golly, when I got out of school in the evening, my dad had something for me to do in the store," he said. "I remember delivering feed. Everybody in town had chickens, pigs. That's the way it was back then. There was a little grocery store on every corner in town. Now, they're all gone."
The closest John Deere dealership then was in Roanoke, where farmers had to go to buy horse-drawn mowers, wagons, buggies and tillers. Wimmer's father signed his first contract with John Deere in 1934 and began selling and servicing equipment locally.
Wimmer remembers the first gas-powered tractor his father sold. It was bought by Shelor Teel in 1937.
"It had steel wheels," he said, recalling that it was a few years later when rubber tires came in. "I think it cost about $800."
Eventually, Wimmer took over the business in Christiansburg. When his mother died in 1954, his father decided to start a John Deere dealership in Danville.
"Dad said, 'I have nothing holding me back. Why don't you run the store here?' " he recalled. "We was so crowded up on Franklin Street, we didn't have much room to carry tractors."
Wimmer bought land on the outskirts of town. In 1968, the business moved to its present Radford Street location.
His oldest son, also named Nelson, took over the Danville dealership but died in an auto accident in 1997. Younger son Charles, now 52, has operated the Christiansburg store with his father since 1980.
"He loves being around here and seeing his old friends," Charles Wimmer said of his father. "Some of the older people will only talk to my dad."
Local farmer Dan Brann, who surprised Wimmer on his 85th birthday with a cake, said farmers in the area depend on the Wimmers.
"A piece of equipment that is not operating properly is worthless," Brann said. "That company helps me get my equipment back in operating order and back in the field."
Plus, Brann added, he hasn't found many companies where friendship is still an important ingredient in doing business.
"Developing friendships is one of the important points of life," Brann said.
"Mr. Wimmer has outlived most of his friends," he continued with a laugh, "but he still has lots of people that come in who've been dealing with him for 50 years."
At Wimmer's birthday celebration Tuesday, many of those people arrived in coveralls and caps. Wimmer smiled as he took in the scene -- old farmers, John Deere mowers and chocolate cake.
"Good to see all you people," he said. "Appreciate you coming in."
