Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
There’s a garage and shop in Edray surrounded by cars. It’s Eddie’s Service Center, and it’s been open since 1963. As you enter the shop, immediately to the right of the door, sitting in a comfortable chair, you’ll find the business’ founder, Eddie VanReenen.
At 93 years old, VanReenen is no longer working on cars, but he is there to share his stories with anyone who wants to sit and chat with him.
VanReenen grew up in Edray and graduated from Marlinton High School in 1951. The day after graduation, he went to Baltimore, Maryland, where he got a job as an aircraft mechanic for Glenn L. Martin Company.
“They sent me to school to be an aircraft mechanic,” he said. “Then the Korean War was going on. I worked at Martin’s from May of 1951 to November of 1952. Then I got a draft notice.”
VanReenen said his boss told him they could help him get a deferment, but he didn’t want to be considered a draft dodger. Instead, he answered the call and joined the military. Martin Aircraft said his job would be waiting for him when he got back.
“The Army didn’t want any aircraft mechanics, so they made a truck mechanic out of me,” he said. “I went to school in Atlanta, Georgia, to be a vehicle mechanic. They sent me to Korea. I was assigned to a combat engineering battalion. I was there when the fighting stopped which made me happy.”
VanReenen was in Korea in 1953 and said he was tasked with working on the vehicles used by the Army to rebuild what was destroyed in the war.
“There were no buildings in Korea at the time because everything had been bombed,” he said. “We worked out of tents and if they had any major equipment – we’d load that stuff and take it south. The minor work we did ourselves.”
At the end of 1953, VanReenen and his company were shipped to Japan.
“In Japan, we had Japanese mechanics and the Americans supervised them, rebuilding equipment and all that sort of stuff,” he said. “That’s what I did for the rest of the time I was in Japan.”
VanReenen had to serve two active-duty years and six years in the Army reserve. When he returned stateside in 1954, he came home for a couple months before going back to Baltimore and Martin Aircraft.
He stayed at Martin for six years, saving up his money and after his reserve time was done, VanReenen knew it was time for him to return home.
“Martin was moving part of their plant down to Florida where Cape Canaveral is and they wanted me to go down there,” he said. “I said, ‘no, I’m far enough away from home.’ So, I came home and built a garage.”
Building a service station was a dream of VanReenen’s from a young age. While most pre-teens were getting dirty, playing outside, VanReenen was learning how to tinker on cars, thanks to two of his uncles who had a shop in Hillsboro.
“They gave me mechanic books and, growing up, I read them,” he said. “I started working on cars when I was twelve, thirteen years old. I’ve worked on old Model Ts, Model As, you name it, I’ve worked on them all.”
In 1963, after getting an honorable discharge, VanReenen came home and built Eddie’s Service Center on land his dad bought for cattle.
“My dad told me, ‘Someday, you’ll want to build a garage,’” he said. “That was on my mind all the time from the time I was ten years old. My father bought this piece of land, four acres, and used it for cow pasture. I built a fence and moved them and built the garage here.”
Don Ramsey helped VanReenen build the structure of the service center. They laid the block walls and did all the carpentry work. Ramsey and Gary Hefner worked for Eddie’s for decades. Hefner went on to get a job at the post office and Ramsey was joined by his son, Robbie, who basically grew up at the shop.
“Robbie has been here sixty years,” VanReenen said. “The second day he was alive, he came in the garage. Every day after school, he’d come over until his mother would make him go home.
“He was up here all the time,” he continued. “He kept watching me. He wanted to be a mechanic.”
When it first opened, the shop included three gas pumps where VanReenen sold regular, leaded and unleaded gas. In 1972, he added a wrecker business with two wreckers and when it got too difficult to keep gas, he closed down the pumps and had them removed.
“Back in ’74, that’s when we had a gas shortage,” he said. “I sold certain days of the week. I sold gas some days and other days, I didn’t. I couldn’t get gas. That kind of hurt things.”
VanReenen’s knowledge and experience helped the shop, a lot. Loggers were happy to see him open because he could work on their trucks, and farmers were happy because he also knew how to work on tractors and farm equipment.
Like he said, you name it, he’s worked on it.
VanReenen worked at the station for 30 years straight before deciding it was time to pass on the business. Don and Robbie took over the shop but kept the name.
In 1993, the shop suffered a devastating fire, but fortunately, they were able to recover and continue providing service.
“One night, by golly, the lightening ran in here on the power line and set it afire,” VanReenen said. “My power went off, and I got up and looked out the window up here; it had blown the windows out and the box on the wall. I came running up here and I tried to get in the door.”
VanReenen didn’t have a phone at his trailer, so he came to the shop to try to call in the fire from there, but he couldn’t get to the phone.
Luckily, a neighbor called it in, and it wasn’t long before the Marlinton fire whistle echoed up the hill, followed swiftly by fire trucks.
Two of the bays were saved, but two were ruined and had to be rebuilt.
“It was a block building, but the roof fell in,” he said. “It didn’t hurt the walls. It burnt up all the tools. It took Don and Robbie a year to get the thing back into business. They had contractors come in and help.”
During this time, VanReenen got a job in maintenance at Silver Creek, but that only lasted four years before the drive got to him and he quit. He worked on a family farm for a while and continued to work on machinery here and there.
About 11 years ago, Don said he was ready to retire, so VanReenen came back to work to help Robbie. Despite being in his 80s, he was ready to pick up the tools again and work on cars once more.
“I said I’ll come back and help,” he said. “I’m still here.”
VanReenen quit again five years ago because he was having trouble standing and has issues with his knees. He continues to come to the station every day, though.
One of the reasons he was happy to set down his tools was the modernization of vehicles.
“I was taught on old vehicles and everything has changed,” he said. “I wasn’t going to learn the new stuff; the new electronic stuff. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Robbie, he grew up with these modern cars. He’s a good mechanic. He does a good job. J.R. [Carden], he worked for Mitchell’s for eighteen years.”
If VanReenen’s 10-year-old self could see where he is now, he would be happy to know that his dream to have his own mechanic shop came true. He put everything into that dream and is pleased to see the fruits of his labor.
“Most of my life was put into this place,” he said. “When I first built it, I was working six in the morning and close up at eleven at night. Sleep a few hours and get up to do it all over.”
