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Back in the early 1990s, Harold McClain ran a small auto repair shop just outside Circleville, Ohio, off Route 23. It wasn’t anything fancy, two bays, one hydraulic lift that liked to stick, and a Coke machine that ate quarters, but Harold had a reputation for doing things right.
He wasn’t the cheapest mechanic in town, and he sure wasn’t the fastest, but folks came to him because he never cut corners. “Fix it like it was your momma’s car,” he used to tell the two high school boys who helped out after school. Most customers never saw the care he took in checking brake lines or wiping off engine parts with clean rags. But he did it anyway.
By 1998, things started to slow down. Big chain repair shops opened on the north end of town. They offered coupons, shuttle rides, and Saturday hours. Harold couldn’t compete with that. Eventually, he closed the garage, sold off most of the tools, and took a job as a parts delivery driver. Same roads, different purpose.
Twenty years passed. Harold retired quietly. He kept to his little ranch house on Walnut Creek Pike and didn’t say much about the garage days, except to bring out an old Polaroid now and then.
Then, in the spring of 2023, a man came knocking. Said his name was Paul James. He ran a fleet service company out of Columbus. “You probably don’t remember fixing up a green ’78 Chevy Caprice back in ‘94,” Paul said. “It was my grandma’s. You told her you wouldn’t let her drive it unless it was safe. And it was, ran like a dream until she passed in 2005.”
Turns out, Paul had looked Harold up. Said he wanted to open a shop in Circleville again, only this time with Harold’s name on it. “Your reputation meant something,” he said. “Folks still talk about that old garage. I want to build on that.”
At 72, Harold didn’t go back to fixing engines, but he did help Paul get the place running again. Gave him old invoices, vendor contacts, and even taught the new kids how to torque bolts by feel. The place opened under a new name: McClain & James Auto Service. Harold still stops by on Tuesdays to share a cup of coffee and remind them to check the brake lines.
He never did advertise much. But his work? It spoke for itself.
