The stores inventory is almost overwhelming. In the automotive section shelves are filled to overflowing with new and used books, magazines, and repair manuals. Topics range from company histories to biographies, recreational vehicles to motorcycles, road trip travel journals to heavily illustrated coffee table books about the Dodge Charger, Ford Model A or Tatra. Some are recent releases. And on the same shelf you will find books such as Dr. Dyke’s Diseases of a Gasoline Automobile and How to Cure Them published in 1903.

Unless special permission was granted by the federal government, the sale of new trucks was prohibited for three years commencing in early 1942. And so when the dam broke in mid 1945, it was literally a sellers market. Many customers put down a sizable deposit for a...

The conference opened with Stephanie Stuckey who gave a most interesting presentation about her namesake company. The story she told was a love letter to her grandfather that had launched the company and proved himself adept at adapting to changing times. It was also a study in how a company dies when it becomes a brand severed from the original vision.