By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Charlie Swink was selling cars in the heyday of Ford Motor Co., back when vehicles with names like “Fairlane,” “Galaxie” and “Sunliner” were orbiting.
Swink doesn’t sell many cars anymore, but he remains a fixture at Cloninger Ford on Jake Alexander Boulevard.
He does any number of things there ó make trips to the bank and post office, and shuttle customers to and from their workplaces while their cars are repaired.
He still sells a car on those rare occasions when a longtime customer comes calling and refuses to deal with anyone but Swink.
Loyalties like these, after all, die hard.
“Charlie is still here every day,” said Kristi Pope, a clerk at Cloninger. “He might sneak away in the afternoon for a nap, but I don’t think we could make it without him.”
Recently, loved ones and employees paid tribute to Swink with a surprise 90th birthday party for him.
The get-together was held in Cloninger’s showroom, which was decorated with ribbons and helium balloons for the grand occasion. Workers from Gary’s Barbecue laid out a huge spread of food.
There was enough barbecue, cole slaw and cake to feed a not-so-small army.
Everyone in attendance greeted Swink with a spirited rendition of “Happy Birthday to You!”
Swink, a man who’s short in stature but big in heart, broke into a grin when he realized what had been done for him.
“Was I surprised?” he said, repeating a question posed of him. “Heck, yes.”
Virtually everyone in attendance shared a story about Swink. Most were of the good-natured variety, the type that don’t often see the light of day.
J.C. Ritchie is the former co-owner of City Motor Co., which Cloninger later bought out. Ritchie said that back in the 1950s, he told his sales manager, Heywood Miller, they needed to hire more salesmen.
Sales were booming and they needed someone to handle all the customers.
Ritchie said Miller told him, “You’ve got the best salesman in North Carolina running your parts department.”
He was referring to Swink, who was City Motor’s parts manager.
Shortly thereafter, Swink made the switch from parts manager to salesman. Everyone benefited.
“He’d sell 30 cars a month when everybody else was selling 12,” Ritchie recalled. “Oh, he was something. He was the best.”
Ritchie said that in all the years he and Swink worked together, he only had to reprimand him once.
That, Ritchie said, happened because Swink had a tendency to loan out his demonstrator car more often than he drove it.
“He’d say, ‘Oh, Mr. Ritchie, that woman needed it worse than I did. She had to get her kids to school,’ ” Ritchie said, chuckling at the memory. “It was just the way Charlie was. He related to everybody. Customers used to say, ‘I like to work with Charlie because he looks out for me.’ ”
Ritchie said there was a time when the lighting at the City Motor workshop wasn’t as good as it should have been. Mechanics grumbled about having trouble seeing to do their repair work.
Ritchie said Swink was a jack of all trades and told him to get a few materials and he’d take care of the problem.
Some wiring and a few lights were purchased, and Swink tackled the project after the business closed one Saturday.
“When I came back Monday morning, that place looked like Wal-Mart or something,” Ritchie recalled, laughing again. “I said, ‘My Lord, I hope I can pay the electric bill.’ ”
Jack Safley is 79 and has been long retired from his job as sales manager at City Motor. He worked with Swink for decades.
Safley said that when they pulled Swink from the parts department, they made him the company’s truck sales manager.
“He and I always got along well,” Safley said.
He said that as good a job as Swink did selling cars and trucks, he may have been a better parts manager.
“He was the best I’ve seen,” Safley said. “He didn’t have to look at any numbers. He kept all the numbers in his head. You’d just set a part in front of him and he knew what to get and where to find it.”
Other employees said Swink remains one of Cloninger’s most reliable workers, showing up for work between 7 and 7:30 a.m., and remaining at the dealership until 3 or 4 p.m.
It’s a schedule he maintains six days a week.
“He likes being around people,” said Shawn Potter, Swink’s daughter. “Financially, he doesn’t have to work, but this is what he wants to do and we’re glad. There’s a reason God still has him here, and we’re thankful for it.”
Swink has another daughter, Dusty Counts, and four grandchildren: Dustin Counts, Christine Counts, Ian Counts and Greylan Counts.
Swink’s wife, Margie, died in 1999 after the couple had been married more than 50 years.
Dustin Counts spoke about his grandfather during the birthday party at Cloninger’s, noting that this wasn’t the first time a celebration for his grandfather had been noteworthy.
“Ten years ago, when we were celebrating his 80th birthday, he was doing the monkey bars at the church,” Dustin said, chuckling.
That church is Franklin Presbyterian.
The day they celebrated his birthday at Cloninger’s, Swink was wearing a jacket commemorating his service in World War II. On the back of the jacket, it read: “U.S. Navy Pacific,” a reference to Swink’s military service. “USS Gato, SS 371.”
Swink entered the Navy shortly before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and served in submarines throughout the war. He served first aboard the USS Gato, then the USS Grouper and finally the USS Sailfish.
“There were some patrols when I didn’t think we would make it back,” Swink said in an interview with the late Franklin Scarborough, the story published in the Post on Sept. 24, 2002.
“And many of them didn’t.”
Larry Cloninger, the owner of Cloninger Ford, kicked off Swink’s birthday celebration with a brief history of his life. Cloninger said Swink often reminded him of a simple fact of life.
“He said if you’re going to spend your life worrying about your problems, you’re always going to have something to worry about,” Cloninger said.
He said Swink was somewhat opinionated, but also as generous as anyone you’d meet. “If a man needs a smile, needs a ride or needs a dollar, he goes to Charlie,” Cloninger said.