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CAR TALK 84TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW with Brad Doenges, Bob Doenges and Joe Dillon · One on One With a Professional

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Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
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It is Thursday. It's a very special Thursday for car Talk. Brad
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Dungeons. A happy anniversary to the Dungeons family of ATTO's big big month,
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big big day. Thank you, Tom. We're so proud to be a
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part of this and a part of Bartlesville for all these years and decades and
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three generations. And I brought some of my friends and associates in the Dewership
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family with me here today. Bob Dungeons and Joe Dillon Salo, good morning.
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Yes, it's welcome. Pick up a little bit, and we're thrilled
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to be here. I live in Tulsa now, but I've grew up here
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in bartles Film. Of course you did. Any fond memories, Yeah,
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lots of and we want to hear about that. I mean, the dealership
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and your life have been pretty much together. I mean the family came here
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when you were one and got the dealership that year, and I guess the
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rest of his history. We moved here from Tonqua and on my first birthday
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until November forty one, they had already had the dealership. He'd come over,
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and so we moved that year the family. That's awesome, and so
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eighty third anniversary and we're celebrating this year at the dealership. If you make
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a purchase of a vehicle, we're making a donation to the charity of your
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choice, and the charity that gets the most vote, so to speak,
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we'll raise that to two hundred and fifty dollars per vote. And we've had
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people taking advantage of that all month and just a few more days left on
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that. We've got great inventory and incentives. Now for just announce some new
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incentives. I'm sorry, I'm going to talk a little bit of car business,
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Bob. Everybody to know they just especially this one twenty three f one
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fifties, which there are not many left. I think we may have just
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one left there. But we have three to nine percent for eighty four months.
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So this is a great if you're looking for a low indust rate on
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an extended term loan, which means a really low payment. It's we haven't
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seen offers like this in a long time, and we've all we still got
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the one point nine for seventy two, but this one will lower the payment
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about sixty dollars a month more than the one point nine for seventy two,
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so it's a great value. Lots of other big incentives have been announced.
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Bronco has a lease reduction. Super Duty has one thousand retail customer cash.
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We've got up from actually a thousand extra, so up from fifteen hundred to
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twenty five hundred. F one fifty Lightning has twenty under additional twenty five hundred
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dollars. You can lease a fighting at four ninety nine a month. That's
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pretty good value. Also got two nine for seventy two on the expedition,
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and lots of other great deals. Plus here's one they just did two nine
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for seventy two on twenty four model year Escape. So a little bit of
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car business stuff, you know, that's that's part of it, I know,
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you know, for all these years the family moved here because of the
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car business, and and Joe came aboard just a few years later, and
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you know, twenty or so, I guess thirty years later, about thirty
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years later, but now fifty two years at the dealership, Joe, that's
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a long time to seem like it now, Well, we're so glad to
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have you there. And when I started here that the employees were a lot
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older. You're the one. Yeah, I'm well, that's good times.
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It is good times and lots of great memories. I know. I remember
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when I was a kid, the dealership up was still downtown and people people
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will remember it on O Sage and three twelve southold say, uh huh and
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uh you know that. I remember walking with him around the dealership down there,
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going upstairs and downstairs. He never seemed to sit still, and that
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that was my impression is he was always moving and going and restless or something,
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no question about it. I inherited some of that because my mother said
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I had to answered my pants so I couldn't sit still either. He was
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hard to keep up with, yeah, I think, but I couldn't keep
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up with him. Well, it was hard, but you you did eventually
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end up running the dealership here in Bartlesville, and when his health became such
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that he could not be the dealer anymore, I came up from uh the
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leadership until you, that's right, took over. Yes, indeed, and
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great honor and great we privileged to have been a part of this community for
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so many years. Well, and that's one of the things we always talk
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about on the show is the as Bartlesville and the unique nature of our community
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because there's so much that goes on here that is Uh, I think it's
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special. I mean for a town our size and with all the stuff,
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and you know a lot of it is stuff that that we've been involved in.
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You do you guys you were in four h and and showed animals out
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at the livestock show that we still support and and uh, you know,
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Joe, you've you were in the Navy, you worked for the police here
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before you briefly h F F a FA and uh, so you know,
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tell me about your your youth and what you remember about Bartlesville. Well,
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I just loved you know. I went to Garfield and Limestone when we moved
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out in the country. And so I fifth and sixth grade at Limestone,
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then Junior High and then college Hi and so went away to college. And
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then after college, I was both show and I had a naval experience.
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I was I went in Navy OCS. I couldn't decide between graduate business school
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or law school. And some friends said, we're going over to the Navy
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recruiter and see if we can get an officer candidate school. And so went
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and I four of us went. Two of us got accepted, and so
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I spent ninety days become what they call us ninety day wonders. I think
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that's what they called him. If you had a college education, and so
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they made you a junior officer, and so I was an insign and I
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said I wanted to Mediterranean. They said halfway through that was interesting. Halfway
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through offser candidate school, they said, now what do you want to do
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and what do you want to do. I knew I was good in operations
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and navigation and really challenging and technical things engineering and all that. That's why
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we got a Joe so good. I'm very challenged engineering wise. But so
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I said, I want the Mediterranean and I want uh, I want to
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I want to be in the Mediterranean and uh. And then and so I
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get my order and I want I want to go to engineering and I don't
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want I want to go to different kinds of school that they and I get
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orders for engineering school in Japan. Home boarded out of out of Tokyo Bay
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and in the early part of and serving the early part of the Vietnam War
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and that build up there. So, but my naval experience was was was
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a great education. Was great education and came back from the Navy to to
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the to the leadership. So yeah, and in your service, where where
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were you, Joe? I've homeported out of one boot camp at Great Lakes
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and Illinois and homeported out in Newport, Rhode Island. We were on ships
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the whole time, so we were in and out all the time. Every
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January third we'd go to Guantrontomo Bay, QBA for war games and because of
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the snow and the weather, and Rhode Island and we spend the spring in
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the in Guantanamo playing war games and going to liberty at San Juan, Puerto
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Rico or Fort Lauderdale, Flord. Are you having a good time, good
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town? And what did you do on the ship as a ship's company electrician?
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Electrician? We fixed all the electrical appliances and motors and forest draft blowers
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and anything that broke electrical we had to fix it. And you know,
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you came back and then the dealership. You've had so many different roles in
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fifty two years. It's not it's understandable, I suppose, But tell me
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about your different roles. What was your first roll? First role was I
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went to work in parts uh Well for Cecilwell and JP Whitwell was the ports
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manager. And my first job was dusting all the ports bins and memorizing the
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part numbers, and that took probably three weeks to do that. It was
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It was really a lot of fun. Then we moved to I worked parts
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and service downtown. Then we moved out on the Highway in seventy seven.
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I went to I don't remember you were going to night school too. I
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went to climb More Junior College for two years and graduated down there and at
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the nighttime correct and working service. When we moved out here, you were
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in service, in service and went to from service to sales, and went
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from sales to the body shop. And you're a longtime manager of the body
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shops and built the body built. Wow. Yeah that and it still works
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at dealership. Does a great work for us, makes cookies for everybody in
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the morning every morning, and makes the popcorn, and and helps us with
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the connecting everything together and keeping it all going in the dealership. Truthfully,
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he does a whole lot of more than that. He but thank you for
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all your your service. I would say my observation is that Joe is who
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help is the glue that holds the dealership together in all all the departments.
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Well, that's a you know, That's something I want to say is you've
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both been great mentors to me and been such an impact on my professional life,
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I think really and just from as an example, uh and for hard
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work and commitment, and and also you're just working for you, Bob,
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with such a great honor and you know, and and there's a great,
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great time that we had then and I'm really proud to have done that and
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learned so much from you. Want you know, I think one of the
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things that you taught me was that, you know, you always were teaching
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people in the dealership and you were always wanting people to learn. And I
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don't know, I know that kind of started. I've always kind of imagined
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it starting back generations ago. And you know, I always think of that
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picture of the young dungeus men on the basketball team in Toncowa and their mother
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and what and what the life they were living then, and when your grandfather
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had passed away and they'd had to move to Tonkowa, which is where the
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original dealership ended up being. They had lived in the grandfather Dungees died in
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nineteen eighteen, and he was a pioneer Methodist minister and had moved to was
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a Spanish American War veteran, both in the eighteen nineties, but it was
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service in Cuba and the Philippines and Philippines, Yeah, the Philippines and Cuba,
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both to parts of the Spanish American War. And he was he got
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malaria and he prayed to God that if he lived, he'd become a minister
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of the Lord. And he he did. He went to Lombard. He
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lived, obviously, came back and and went to Lombard School of Theology at
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Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, and Chicago, and got a church in Chicago
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area and then to Collinsville, then Blackwell, and that's where he uh the
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uh he got really ill and passed away. And Lulu my grandmother, who
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I knew very very well. She was a widow with six children, uh,
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a widow of a Methodist minister, with five boys and one girl.
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And moved to Talquall because the Ford dealer there, Dan Ryan, gave the
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teen when they were teenagers, a job, first Solon to sweep out the
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dealership and then next year, Oswald was thirteen, and so Solin became the
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night partsman. Oswald became the sweeping out the dealership. Next two years later,
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our dad was thirteen, so Solan got to sell vehicles. Ozzie became
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the night foreman, and our dad got to sweep out the dealership at night.
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And so Dan Ryan gave each of the boys a job. And it
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was a it was a handout, not a handout. And Lulu, she
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had gone to grandmother Dungeons. It was a Swiss German farmer's daughter in southern
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Illinois. She got a scholarship to Iowa Wesleyan in the eighteen nineties, and
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when she met Rudolph, she said, I there's only one condition in our
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marriage is that each of our children will get a college education. Because after
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two years at Iowa wesley and her father said he was tired of educated women
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and told her she couldn't go back. And so she was quite a character.
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So she got all six children through college, the last one being James,
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who was with an MD at Washington University in Saint Louis. And then
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she went back to went to ou and got her library science degree, became
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the librarian at the college and Tonkwall. She was quite a goal. I
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kind of thought. I didn't realize she'd had to go back to college and
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she her father had enough of her being educated. I learned something this morning.
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That's great. But that's that's that spark for that, that learning thing
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that I really think was is kind of part of that in this story.
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One of those six children got a college education. Yeah, and and had
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those the structure and the goal they all accomplished so much in their lives and
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the and you think about the you know that that picture of the three boys
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on that basketball team too, and how far, how far we've come in
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the in that time. It's a it's about one hundred years since that photograph.
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Right. Sports. Sports were so important to Papa. Yeah, Papa,
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you called him Bob. But he was a great athlete. He was
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at Oklahoma City University. He was the he won the outstanding Athlete aboard the
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Brouse that little things and is still in that office there and at the dealership,
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and he was he played it was a quarterback for his coach was Lynn
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Pappy Waldorf, who was went from OCU to Oklahoma A and M in that
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day and then to the university. He may have had some one of the
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Kansas schools, and then he went to the University of California, they the
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Golden Bears, and and he was the coach there and was a legendary football
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coach. And our dad was a good basketball player and tennis player. He
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was an all around athlete. And so that's why you know, he was
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so interested in the baseball program, right and help that baseball started that essentially
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right away when he first got here. And of course we were recognized by
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the Guinness Book of Records for being the longest corporate sponsor of a sports team
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in the world. Uh, which continues. Can you in a few weeks
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this summer down at Bill Dungeess Stadium, we'll be playing ball again. Really
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proud of that. Those and he you know other things he did in sports.
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I know the story about the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. That's one that's
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really interesting. There was a he he met the fellow that that was the
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founder, and tell that story because you know it better. I'm trying to
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I'm scrambling to remember his name, but I know it was Don who founded
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Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And he came and to my dad here in Bartlesville
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and said would he help him sport. He was trying to start this story
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I'd heard is he had car trouble. He had met him. Yeah,
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so he needed the help of a car dealer, Don mccleannon. Yeah,
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that was his name. And he got my dad to help him and brand
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Shrickey, who was with the on the Brooklyn Dodgers, and they started that
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they were the original founding, uh recognized as founders of the Fellowship of Christian
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Athletes. Right, yeah, great story, so many great stories. And
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you know his he was a We mentioned his you know, his busy life.
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And you know, your mother was also quite busy, and we,
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uh, we do a lot to honor a lot of the stuff she did
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too here through our ongoing support for programs like Concerns and you know all the
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what used to be Mutual Girls Club and and you know she was one of
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those learners too, who was very passionate about people being having learning and absorbing
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knowledge. Right. My favorite story about her mother they were Mama and Papa
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to me. But is that is that he got his first dealership and during
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the depression and in uh, what's the town on the way to Torah Braymon,
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Braymond, Oklahoma, and he and she was the English teacher, and
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he went broke. Oh, he couldn't pay for the They brought a convoy
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vehicles in. He couldn't pay for it. They shut him down and he
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had to go to talk Wall to work for his brother who had gotten the
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dealership from Dan Ryan. Uh. And but he was known as she was
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being the English teacher in Braymon, he was known as Missus Dungeas's husband.
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I think I told that story about but she was really she valued education and
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values and and you know you were talking about the thing I would have one.
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I would always have one management manager big manager meeting here uh when I
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was a dealer, and I would give an article out for everybody to read
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and be prepared for the next money, next meeting the next month. And
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the principle behind it was it was a valuing session. I gave them,
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give them an article that talked about values in business. And the principal that
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I always felt was so critical in the dealership in our business is when when
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we know our values, our decisions are easy. And so that was what
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in the management team that we developed there and have that philosophy about trying to
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stick to that. And the more I've matured in the business, you know,
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I see how important that is and sticking to our to how to our
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values and to the team's values, and and uh, yeah, that's just
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really that's that's great. And we we have are we have this thing we
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call sparks now, which is the is a. It actually started with that
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picture of of the Baba and and his brothers, but it the one A
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couple of years ago, the dealership team we were talking about it at a
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management meeting and we had this idea of coming up with words that would stand
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for sparks. So it became sincere partnerships aligned, resilient, kais in Superheroes
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spelling out sparks. So it's an acronym that was kind of created backwards.
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We started with sparks and then came up with the words. But yeah,
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it's it's it is around the idea of of of of what our values sincere
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partnerships aligned, So we want to be true and honest and sincere partners with
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ourselves, our team and the community and be aligned and resilient and tough and
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kaizen a great word from our Japanese partners at Toyota. That means continuous improvement
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and knowledge, having the right information at the right place at the right time
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so the employee can do their job, is really what it means. And
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then superheroes, if we do all that right, people obviously come out good.
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Yeah. I would like to mention that somebody who was really I would
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say effectively ran the dealership being the office manager, was Joanna Lee, who
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passed away your ago in June, and so last time, since you know
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this anniversary, to particularly remember her. She started working in the office in
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nineteen fifty as the office manager to Isolma Lloyd's place in nineteen fifty and when
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I was the dealer, I retired her in nineteen eighty nine and Joan Baffman
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came in as the office manager and did a great job. But I particularly
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want to honor and remember jo Anne because he traveled a lot, and he
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ran for governor of Oklahoma twice. He was Democratic national committeeman for the state
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of Oklahoma back in the fifties. He was national chair National president of the
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National Automobile Dealers Association. So I had an office in Washington for two years.
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So he traveled a lot, and she really took care of things.
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I was along with Joe Dillon, kept going until you got another guy.
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You mentioned J. P. Whitwell, that in JP and Cecil that family.
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I remember JP so well. I don't remember Cecil quiet quite as well.
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But the yeah, just uh, a lot of memories of him out
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there fishing, to be honest. But Bill Lawrence, Bill Lawrence. Yeah,
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and the Lawrence family still see them around town. Yeah. I was
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going to say Charlie Manning, he was well. When I first came to
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the dealership, there was another Ryan still there, Phil Ryan, Phil Ryan.
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He was Dan Ryan, the old dealer in Tnkuall's son was was the
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sales manager. It is under Bill Lawrence. Bill Lawrence was sales manager and
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and Phil Ryan and he he's so sold fortuntil great family. It kind of
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gets in your blood when you start this car business thing, doesn't it.
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So it really does. Well. You know, We're got about five minutes
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left or so, and I want to thank everybody for listening and hanging on
24:07
through this. A little bit self indulgent reminiscing of the Dungeon's family history and
24:12
the legacy in Bartlesville is there anything else you know you remember that you think
24:18
would be worth mentioning. Joe, what's your what's uh? If you had
24:26
to wrap it all up? What's it been like for fifty almost fifty two
24:30
years in a good life. I've really enjoyed every year of it. Always
24:38
enjoy coming to work and hate to leave. And it's just terrible, terrible,
24:44
terrible when I'm sick or have to take vacation. I just really enjoy
24:48
my job, enjoy my work and just do me will. Oh, thank
24:53
you for all your hard work. I know I couldn't wouldn't have made it
24:57
without job, So thank you. Strong family support on both sides. Yeah,
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no, And we call ourselves dumb to just family about us for a
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reason these days, because it's you know, it's it is about it's both
25:10
the family. And we have plenty of family in the business. But it's
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not just we're not it's not all family. And the truth is we look
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at the you know a lot of our our employees as family and the community
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and it is it is something that all works together. I'll share one thing.
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When I was in the Navy, I got my dad would type me
25:30
letters and I remember the typewriter late at night. And in one of the
25:37
letters I still have said, and talking about his mother, you know that
25:42
she when she was ill and they moved her over from talk Walk to the
25:47
methist manor Untilsa. She was, she said she she was having trouble with
25:56
dementia. And but she said, you know, we were so hard all
26:00
these years. Bill, I don't know that I ever had time to tell
26:03
you that I love you. You know. You know, they were just
26:07
so busy working, putting food on the table, you know, and getting
26:11
their educations. But he said, she taught us four things. Get up
26:15
as early as you can, work as hard as you can, do the
26:18
best that you can, and leave the rest to God. And I came
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across the book years later that was coming obviously from Swiss German farmer's family.
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Get up as early as you can, work as hard as you can,
26:36
do the best that you can, leave the rest to God. And this
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was a person who was a from Spain and the Basque territory. And she
26:45
wrote the book called the four Fold Way, and it would show up,
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pay attention, speak the truth, and don't be attached to the outcome.
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And then when she wrote the book, she would show up, be present,
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pay attention to that which has heart and meaning, speak the truth without
27:03
blame and without judgment. And she didn't like the negative of don't be attached
27:07
outcome, be open to the outcome. But those I think are really guidinglines
27:11
that you have. And we're so proud of Brandon, and so that's great.
27:17
Those are does resonate, I think and are good lessons for everyone.
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Well, thank you both for being here. Once again. We are celebrating
27:26
our eighty third anniversary is selling forwards here in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and we're
27:33
also proud to be Oklahoma's oldest Toyota dealer. We are if you purchase a
27:37
vehicle this month from us, we'll make a donation to the charity of your
27:41
choice. And so if you are in the market for a car, be
27:45
sure to come talk to us. We have a great team of salary sales
27:52
professionals. They are there to serve you. We work with our simple price,
27:56
you can work your own deal, very transparent, open selling process,
28:00
really streamlined the process, you know. I think that that sticks to a
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lot of our values of treating people right and most like we would want to
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be treated and and you know, so come check that out the dealership and
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we'll be out there later today. All right, folks, you've been watching
28:18
in the listening to a bit of a history lesson here with Brad Dungeis and
28:22
the Dans family bought us right here on car Talk on K one.