Speed DeVee, Erwin Foltz, George Brooks and others.

This came from Anonymous: "SORRY TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT!!but i'd like to see a thread about SPEED DEVEE! where did he come from?what did he do?WHY THE NAME"SPEED"???"

I'd like to see a post about Speed DeVee myself. I have little direct knowledge of him. I have no pictures. So, I'll do a post and hope that someone will fill in a few of the blanks. His name was Loren M. "Speed" DeVee.

Speed was a fixture in Garberville. He was known a the man to go to if you needed a cheap easy repair done on your car or truck. He had a Garage in Garberville. It was just across the alley from the old Redwood Inn. Today it would be next to George Rolf Real Estate company. It was located where the south end of Ray's Sentry Parking lot is now. Back in the sixties, he had an International Scout Dealership in the building. His garage was a big old barn with a tin roof and tin siding. He had a mechanic by the name of Moody. Between the two of them, there wasn't anything that they couldn't get running.

Back before the Freeway bypassed Garberville, Speed had a wrecking yard just east of where the school yard to the Garberville school was. He also had a used auto parts store, it was called; "Poor Mans Auto Parts". It was the last building on the south west side of Garberville. It was located in the big turnout just at the south end of the southbound freeway entrance. Right across from the Shine Sherburn residence.

I guess one of the things that Speed was most noted for was his "Ambulance". He had an old Cadillac hearse painted up like an ambulance. His wife, Bertha, was his "Nurse". He hauled a lot of people to the Garberville Hospital. He had a C.B. radio for comunication to his "base" in his Garage. He had 100 watt cheaters on his radios, but nobody complained. Whenever you heard Speed's siren leaving town, you would turn on your C.B. radio and get a blow-by-blow description. Stuff like; "Tell Dr. Pierson to stand by, I think that he is going to have to sew this guys leg back on". Gordie Tosten has a funny story about the time he broke his leg in the woods and they had Speed come pick him up. He said that the gurney was loose, and every time Speed would go uphill, the gurney would roll back and slam against the back door. As soon as he went over the hill or hit the brakes he would roll forward and hit the back of Speed drivers seat. He said that he was scared to death that the door was going to fly open, but Speed wasn't worried. He said that; "It does that all the time". Gordie used to tell that story during the drink-outs at the Fire Department barbecues. It got funnier every time he told it.

Speed rented the back of his Garage to Erwin Foltz, a person who was Garberville's equivalent of Thomas Edison. Erwin was a highly respected man in Garberville. He was the one who kept the Garberville Water Company running. He did all of the repairs on the Garberville Fire trucks. When Erwin died they named the new Garberville fire Hall after him. I remember that I had a lift gate on my truck that was broken. The lift gate had a regular old Ford starter motor on it. I went to Erwin to get some parts, but he wanted to know how a plain old Ford starter motor could run both ways. He offered to fix the gate "no charge" if I would let him take my motor apart. The motor had the shunt coils disconnected, and had a separate wire running to them, when the main winding was shut off, and the shunt winding was energised it would make the motor run backwards, and lower the gate. I tried to tell him that, but he had to see it himself to believe it. (I know people like that.) After he took it apart he declared: "They have the shunt coils wired separately. So the motor can run either way." Yeah, No shit Erwin.

Speed sold out to George Brooks, who opened a tire shop that he ran for years. George eventually sold the building to Bob Smith who tore the building down to build a parking lot for his store. George is still around along with "Brooks Enterprises". He delivers Efficiency Service Delivery packages to me almost every morning. He has a motorcycle detail and storage facility up in the Meadows Business park. He is quite busy and energetic.

Speed lived out his last years in Ferndale. He died last year, and they say he was sharp witted clear up to the end. He must have been in his late eighties.