Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Calley's celebrates 35th

Long hours, hard work and dedication is the attitude Johnny Calley had when he first opened his business in April of 1967.

Calley had just graduated from Gurdon High School and wanted to start his own business.

In 1967 a full-service station was in big demand along Highway 67. Interstate 30 had not been built yet and the amount of traffic through the town of Gurdon was abundant.

"That's what I remember most about the early days. The amount of traffic coming through the Gurdon area," said Reia, Johnny's wife.

"We had only been dating a year when Johnny bought the station from Ed Roberts. Johnny didn't allow me to hang out around the station much back in those days," Reia recalled.

However, Reia said she did recall Calley and his dad, Roland, working long hours. In those days Calley's dad was the only help he had.

Calley's mom Lois remembered when the station was open 24-hours-a-day and then after awhile they opened at 5 a.m. and stayed open until midnight.

Lois has handled all of the station's books since the doors opened. She is still in charge of them today.

In the past 35 years, Calley has seen many changes with the interstate coming through and expanding his business. Calley has always had a wrecker truck to which his children can remember riding with their "Popa" Roland to pick up vehicles.

Calley has added on buildings, services, employees and due to the large snow a few years ago he added a new awning over the gas pumps.

One major change Calley has seen through the years is prices.

In a ticket book from 1969, Calley compared the cost of a skidder flat being $6. Today a skidder flat will cost you around $50. Five gallons of gas would have cost you $1.60 and oil was .40 cents a quart.

Calley's daughter Jeanie said, "I can remember when Popa was still working with daddy. Everyday daddy would have time to come home for lunch. I loved it because he would watch "All My Children" with me.

"He's to busy for lunch now."

Calley has updated his equipment in order to keep up with the times. After the interstate took a lot of the traffic from Hwy. 67, Calley remained a strong business with much of business still being the normal automobile, with a large amount of logging equipment taking up the majority of his time.

With Gurdon being a logging town and Calley having and utilizing the equipment to repair and maintain the logging equipment, Calley has dominated in the area.

Calley himself, first bought a few diesel's and hauled gravel. Since that time Calley now owns 13 trucks in which he hauls logs with.

His employees have changed off and on.

However, many of them who have been employed there have stuck around awhile. For instance, Bob, Calley's cousin started working at the station as soon as he graduated high school. He has worked at the station for 24 years, but recently decided to try something different.

Reia said, "It will be hard without Bob, he is our right hand man."

Paul, the oldest of Calley's children, worked at the station during high school. After Paul graduated he attended college to become a coach. Paul would come home every summer to work at the station with his father. After he finished college and took a job with the Bryant schools, Paul has continued to help his father at the station as much as possible during the summer.

Paul said, "I have lots of memories of the station, but the most important thing I learned growing up was that it takes hard work and dedication to accomplish anything. Both of my parents have been perfect examples of this. I wanted to be a coach because I could put forth the hard work and dedication because of the way I was raised. I hoped I could teach these qualities to my students and my own children."

Nick, Calley's youngest son, works at the station for his dad.

Yolanda, Nick's fianci, said, "My soon to be father-in-law is the hardest working man that I have ever met.

"However, I like it when Johnny tells me some of the funny things that happened while working at the station. Like when my Uncle Raymond was at the station and his tire exploded. People heard it all over town and Bob had just started working at the station. The explosion scared him so bad that he ran across the street and hid."

Calley's has seen many changes in the past 35 years, however, one thing has always stayed the same. Their willingness to work for what they have and their ability to help their customers.