If you read our newsletter, and I hope you do… You know that this is our 30th Anniversary year at this location and that I’ve asked those of you who have been with us for awhile to share your “Schneider’s Automotive” stories with us.

Thirty years is a long time and as a family, we – and, particularly, my father – were (and, probably still are…) nothing if not “colorful.” My thought was, there is a good chance there are some really “tasty” stories out there and that some of our ‘newer’ clients might enjoy if some of our ‘older’ clients were willing to share them.

You never know how a request like that is going to work out. Lots of people have both the memories and the stories to share, but find themselves reluctant. Nevertheless, I thought I would ask.

I’m at the shop and in my office. I just looked up at the clock… It’s approximately seven:fifty and I’ve been here since a few minutes after six.

If you want to know what I was doing here, pop over to captaincarfix.blogspot.com. It’s all there.

I was just finishing up the entry for that blog – which has a slightly different focus, and consequently, a slightly different flavor – when Suzie Lanergan appeared at the counter. Suzie was in for ‘normal’ service, but couldn’t leave until she shared her “Schneider’s Automotive” story with me: and now, I’d like to share it with you.

Suzie has been coming in since she was in college – she would probably, or will probably, kill me for sharing this because that was a few weeks ago – but, it goes to the heart of what I was asking for. And right now, at this particular moment, there is no way to express just how it made me feel.

Her earliest memories of this place go back to a time when my mother’s office was actually the waiting area and people were supposed to enter through the door that hasn’t opened in decades: the original design – which, of course, didn’t work. Regardless, Suzie remembers coming in, waiting in the office for her car to be done: doing schoolwork, talking to me, Mom or Dad, and then heading off.

When we talk about ‘old’ clients, you have to understand that Suzie’s family is among our ‘original‘ clients: the clients who started with us when we first opened – when I first opened, the76 station on Tapo Street and Cochran – and, that was the year before we opened here.

So, Suzie’s memories go back thirty-one years!

What she was able to express that warmed my heart perhaps more than anything else, was how she felt and still feels coming in after all these years: welcome, respected, recognized and appreciated. I’d say, “like part of the family,” but we all know that we can take family for granted at times.

You can’t do that with clients. At least, not for long.

It isn’t hard treating Suzie like she’s special… She is. In fact, Suzie is wonderful! (And, was trying to save the whales long before saving the whales was as popular as it is today – Just look at her license plate and you’ll see!).

That was Suzie’s memory… She shared it with me and now I’ve shared it with you.

If you have a Schneider’s story, please let me know. I’d love to hear it and if I’d love to hear it, I’m almost willing to bet someone else would love to hear it as well!

This will be a short post followed by a “travel day” tomorrow. I’ll explain as I go along…

Normally, I would feel compelled to just “shine it,” and get back to blogging when both time and spirit allowed. But, I just finished a few chapters in Seth Godin’s newest book, Linchpin: and, it would be accurate to say that Seth ‘guilted’ me into writing now instead of later. According to one of my favorite authors, “You have to ship!”

Shipping means disciple, and discipline means attacking the things that are most important and need to be done first, now. In keeping with that sentiment, here we go.

Yesterday was our 40th Wedding Anniversary and our kids invited a very small group of our most intimate friends - our “Three O’Clock in the Morning” friends – to a luncheon they put together for us in Westlake. It was a spectacular afternoon! There isn’t much you can say about being with a group of people you have known quite literally, forever – nothing except that time spent that way is somehow all the sweeter.

There isn’t much you can say about the blessing of having your children close and not spread out across the country or the world, either.

It was a beautiful afternoon made more beautiful, if that’s possible; by the company and the conversation, the warmth and the joy.

We’re going to continue that feeling throughout the day today and, then, with diner tonight. Tomorrow morning I’ll be up and on the road before anyone I know who is not working ‘graveyard’ or a split shift will be up. I’m headed to the airport for a first A.M. flight to Philadelphia and two presentations there. I will try to write from the hotel, but I never know what’s going to happen with my time when I get where I’m going. When you sign on for a speaking engagement like this the only thing you can be sure of is that your time isn’t necessarily your own.

But, tomorrow marks another special Anniversary – it’s our 30th Anniversary in business on Los Angeles Avenue (We actually opened on Tapo Street exactly one year before we opened on L.A. Ave.). That too, is an experience filled with beautiful memories, incredible relationships and a number of great stories as well. There isn’t much you can say about spending your life with a group customers and friends you have known quite literally, forever; either – nothing except that time spent that way is somehow all the sweeter.

Between the two events and the pressure of traveling and then presenting two nights in a row I am, quite frankly, overwhelmed! Consequently, I think I’ll wait until I process at least some of these emotions to share them. At least, that way they might even make some sense. But, I will share just one reflection here and now before I sign off. It’s something that happened when the business hit its 25th Anniversary here in the Valley.

On the verge of that anniversary, I called the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce and asked how many of all the businesses that opened in 1980 when we opened, were still open and operating. They called back to tell me – five years ago – that only 6% of the businesses that had opened when we did were still in existence. That was a pretty humbling experience.

I’m sure that percentage is even smaller today, especially after the past eighteen months. So, if you are reading this and you are one of our customers or clients, all I can say is: Thank You for thirty wonderful years! You enrich my life and the lives of everyone at the shop more than you can know.

To Lesley who has hung in there with me and who, I am sure, got a lot more than she bargained for when she signed on: Thanks, Kid! You are my life…

If you are the folks I’m working for Tuesday night and Wednesday – see you soon!

Until then, stay well and take care… Be back soon.