Farewell Hazelrigg's

You sometimes just can't help thinking that things that appeared rock solid and would be around forever are in fact slowly sinking away. Birds in the sky, now fireflies are dwindling. Courtesy, customer service, a real voice on the phone. LPs and 35mm cameras, payphones....relics now, confined to museums. Pan Am Airlines, Oldsmobile and Plymouth autos. The 2002 demise of Plymouth recently ended a long established business in my home town. Been there since I was a pup, figured it would be for a long time to come.

Hazelrigg's Chrysler, once Hazelrigg's Chrysler/Plymouth, shut its doors this past April. My sister mentioned this to me recently. I thought they would be there forever, the hard part had passed for them. But the owners were getting older, Jim had died and the youngest brother is around 70. The market was crazy, car sales except for the damn Toyota and Honda brands were down. It was getting hard to make ends meet in a smaller, family owned business.

The demise of Plymouth in 2002 was the death knell for many Chrysler/Plymouth dealers. It took their bread and butter away, of course the bread had been moldy and scarce for a long time. But minivan sales were still good, and the compact Neon made some sales. But the venerable Plymouth brand was dying, Dodge was the hot brand with the biggest selection of models. Chrysler brand had a resurgence with the hot 300M and then the later 300C, but Chrysler was more upscale and thus sales were not at the level of Dodge. Without the full range of cars, Chrysler dealers were struggling.

My dad bought most of his cars from Hazelrigg's. Starting with a used 1956 Dodge, his 1962 Chrysler New Yorker, and ending with his 1977 Chrysler New Yorker. My sister had that car for years and Hazelrigg's kept it running as well. I even bought a car there, a 1990 Plymouth Voyager minivan, back in my family man days. Ok, we were not their best customers, but damn it we were loyal for sure. Dad had known the Hazelrigg's for years, they had originally been across the street from his office in Downtown Decatur on Prairie St. The move to North Oakland (practically the suburbs) took place I think in the late 60's. It was their only home for a generation or two of car buyers.

Chrysler is now sold at the Brady Automall, along the Interstate with the rest of the businesses that abandoned downtown and even midtown Decatur. Somehow, it will be not be business as usual. The same staff, the same people who knew you at the shop or the business office, no one to call and say "Paul, the big Chryslers are going away soon, better get one now." North Oakland will not be the same either with Tallman Cadillac being empty as well, another icon of Decatur auto lore gone.

I somehow think we are losing something important, or at least anchoring and familiar. Like the firefly. And flocks of birds.