‘Service is the only thing I had to sell’: Smith’s 66 closing after 76 years

“As Bob Dylan wrote and sang, ‘Times Are a Changing.’ Thanks for letting the Smith family ride along with y’all.”

The sign posted on the door of the Smith’s 66 service station tells of a new chapter for the property and its owner, Lynwood “Nunnie” Smith.

Smith’s 66 will be closing its doors Friday, Dec. 23 after 76 years.

Smith and his sister-in-law, Brenda, are retiring from the business located at 1692 Columbia Road.

“I have never had a vacation,” the 72-year-old Nunnie Smith said. “I have had a couple of long weekends but never had a vacation.”

Smith noted his day starts at 4:15 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m.

“I work 17 hours a day,” he said.

His retirement will be bittersweet.

“My clientele has been extremely good to me,” Smith said. “I can’t thank them enough and I feel like I am abandoning my clientele because they have been so good to me over the years.”

“It is like losing a family member,” he continued. “I have agonized and have a lot of sleepless nights worrying about what they are going to do when I am gone.”

Smith said he is now serving the children and grandchildren of his original clients.

“They are great people,” Smith said. “They are very generous. Every year for Christmas, they bring packages and gifts and food. I have one customer during the summer who will bring us slushes and things to drink because it is hot and they want to make sure we stay hydrated.”

“I have the best customers in the world,” Smith said.

“But the time has come for me to take a break and step down so I can enjoy something while I still have good health,” he said.

Smith’s father Emmett was involved in a gas station business with his brother Blake in downtown Orangeburg. The two men decided to take different business paths.

Emmett Smith started the business that would become Smith’s 66 on Broughton Street in 1946 in the backyard of a rental house.

“My father was fortunate enough to have $5,000 to buy the Mercury Motor franchise, which included the motors, all the tools and all the parts,” Smith said. “He worked in the playhouse in the backyard, repairing outboard motors and selling outboard motors.”

Nunnie was born 1950. At the age of 3, his mother passed away, leaving his father a widower.

This reality prompted his father to do what he could to help feed his children, who needed his care. His father worked at a machine shop and then at a Chrysler dealership.

In 1953, his father’s business moved to U.S. Highway 301, across from where Don’s Auto Electric is currently. It was an Esso dealer.

“They would take me to the station and I would sleep under the counter in a Coca-Cola crate all day,” Smith recalled.

When he was old enough to go to school, Smith’s next-door neighbor would drop him off and “then daddy would send somebody after school to pick me up.”

“I would stay there until 8 o’clock at night when we closed up,” Smith said.

But his day was not over.

From 8 p.m. to about 10 p.m. he and his father would work a second job installing televisions. One project was the installation of televisions at the Orangeburg Hospital on Carolina Avenue.

“We would install TVs in the rooms, go up on the roof and drop the antenna wire down,” Smith said.

The business remained on U.S. 301 until late around late 1967 or early 1968.

“They widened U.S. 301 and that put us out of business because they took the gas pumps out,” Smith said.

Then along came Bill Hart.

Smith said Hart was an American Amoco gas distributor and had caught the eye of Phillips 66.

“Phillips 66 wanted to get into this territory,” Smith said. “They wanted a new location in Orangeburg.”

As a result, Smith said the station moved from U.S. 301 to its current location at the intersection of Columbia Road and Boulevard Street in September 1968.

The Orangeburg Mall was almost completed, Smith said. “It opened about a month after we did.”

He noted the rest of the area was residential and wooded.

The new station was considered unique in its design.

According to the Society of Architectural Historians, the building is thought to be one of two double-canopied buildings in the state built in such a fashion.

The other, built in Columbia, has long been demolished.

According to the SAH, architect Clarence Reinhardt, who spent his career working at Phillips Petroleum, created a series of service station designs in the 1950s and 1960s intended to enhance the company’s brand recognition among motorists.

This design was exemplified by Smith’s 66.

During the early days at the Columbia Road location, Smith attended and then eventually graduated from Orangeburg High School in 1969.

He went to Fort Jackson where he joined the U.S. Army as a cook. Smith spent about six years in the National Guard. He has been running the service station full-time since 1970.

Emmett eventually passed away and Nunnie and his brother, Alton “Chick” Bruce Smith, took over the business.

Chick oversaw the marine side of the business while Nunnie oversaw the station. Brenda has overseen the administration side of the business.

Chick passed away in September 2019. With his passing, the marine side of the business was liquidated.

Being in business for so long, Smith has seen some changes.

The biggest was the shift from full-service stations to self-service.

Self-service “basically killed the full-service business due to price,” Smith said. “Once self-service was introduced and people became very cost-conscious, they would buy their gas from the least expensive place they could find it. They would buy their tires someplace else, they would have their oil changed someplace else.”

“Prior to that, it was a one-stop shop,” Smith said. “You did everything on location right there.”

Service has been the hallmark to the business’s longevity, Smith said.

“That is why my customer base is loyal,” he said. “We do brakes, tires, tune-ups, automotive repair, gas, car washes, pick-up, delivery service.”

“Service is the key,” Smith continued. “That is the only thing I have to sell. You can buy gas 100 places in Orangeburg. Service is the only thing I had to sell, dependable service.”

While service has not changed, Smith said gas prices have.

When the service station opened in 1968, regular gasoline was selling for about 27 cents to 28 cents a gallon.

As his retirement draws near, Smith said one thing he will not miss are the long hours.

With free time on his hands, he says, “I will find something to do.”

Some of his hobbies have included flying and boating, but he is most looking forward to spending “more time with my two children, my two sons.”

As for the future of the business, Smith said, “I would hope someone will buy it and continue to run it as I am running it.

“If not, Starbucks would be wonderful sitting here.”

He said there has been heavy interest and discussions, but nothing concrete.

“Until I see a check or contract, there is nothing,” Smith said.