From high schooler to hitchhiker just that fast.
“That broke my mother’s heart,” Bill Williams remembered.
That young man, a boy really back in 1963, ended up in Dayton — 298 miles from his home and a future working in the coal mines — and lived in the basement of one of his friend’s house. Williams found a job at Frigidaire, then at National Cash Register. He also got married to Jean.
He worked at NCR for seven years and appeared destined to be a lifer.
During lunch every so often, Williams spent time in a downtown dealership, buying used cars, then selling them for a profit. He turned $100 bills into two $100 bills, and that, as you could imagine, made Bill Williams a happy man.
“That was good money,” he said. “If you double up on everything you sell, you will never go broke. It worked for me.”
So he decided to leave NCR and enter the car business full time. Well, he decided that after running the idea by his wife. No man in his right mind goes from a stable job with benefits to the unknown of being a businessman without checking with the boss first.
“She wasn’t very happy about the idea,” he admitted. “But I was bound and determined to give it a shot.”
The Williamses went to a local bank, and used their furniture as collateral to borrow $1,200. That was enough to buy six cars and Bill Williams Auto Sales was in business.
That was 1965.
Now, 50 years later and a few pounds heavier, Williams is still doing what he loves: Selling cars.
“This is where I want to be,” he said. “It’s part of me.”
His secrets to success?
“Long hours and hard work,” he said, before adding: “That’s all it takes.”
Which is like saying if you play 20 seasons in the Major Leagues and hit .300 every year, you’ll end up in the Hall of Fame.
Williams is 80 and still works six days a week, usually six hours a day. He realizes his better days are behind him.
“I’m not much anymore,” he said.
His daughter, Sherri Alexander, 52, disagreed. She said just about everyone who stops by his dealerships in Middletown and Franklin ask about him, and when an employee has a question, he’s the man with the answer.
“He knows it,” she said.
In the auto world, he’s an antique.
But he’s also a classic.
He speaks his mind, even if he gets the words jumbled.
“I know I’m not the most educated guy out here,” he said. “I know what I say may not sound right, but I know how to count.”
Speaking of numbers, how many more years you got in you?
“That’s up to the good Lord,” he said. “It’s all in His hands now.”
Not much has changed since he left home 62 years ago.
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