BRIGHAM CITY – Royce Reeder is an unlikely historian. He has a thing for old cars, music and bicycles.
The man in his mid-70s doesn’t collect manuscripts, photos or documents. Reeder probably calls himself anything but a historian, but a walk around his cars on lot on 400 North Main Street in Brigham City and you’ll learn each car is something special.
“I think it started when I was a kid,” he said. “Our front yard had a bunch of bicycles I collected, scattered all over it. My father asked me to sell all those old bikes and buy one new bike. So that’s what I did.”
It didn’t take long before the yard started to fill up with abandoned bikes again.
“I like to collect bicycles, I still do. I like the ones used in the ’50s and ’60s,” he said. “They all mean something.”
So it is with cars. The front lot of a converted gas station on Main Street in Brigham City has a row of old Fords and Chevy’s. One of the cars has large fins over the rear fenders and some of the old Fords have rounded fenders like they used to have in the ‘50s. In the back he has more cars, not just Fords and Chevys but any American-made car.
“I have a ’68 Chevy Nova SS that runs and drives,” he said. “I’m more of a collector and fixer than I am a salesman.”
Reeder said he has more than a hundred cars. Most of them are ‘50s, ’60’s and ‘70s. Some are fixed, painted and shined. He has them stored in different locations.
He has other cars that need work. The body of the cars are rusted, and the upholstery is ratty if it is there at all.
“I keep the finished ones covered because the sun isn’t good for the paint on them,” he said. “People drive by and see the cars and want to buy them. I don’t really want to sell them.”
“I had a guy tell me he was coming up to buy one of my cars,” Reeder said. “He said he would be up there with $6,100 cash and wanted to take it home with hm. I told him not to make the trip for that kind of money.”
The cars are more than just cars to Reeder; they mean something.
He has a 1967 Ford Thunderbird he is restoring. The body is separated from the powertrain. He is sanding the body and repairing It. The engine was seized, so he found another one, rebuilt it and when the body is finished it will be reassembled.
“Let me show you something else,” he said. Reeder took his keys out and opened the door to what used to be the office of the old filling station. It was packed wall to wall with jukeboxes and 45 RPM records. In the mechanical bays of the station there were more jukeboxes.
“I think I have over a hundred of them,” he said. “What kind of music do you like, country western or pop/rock? I think I have something for everyone.”
Without hesitation he plugged in a 1955 jukebox and pressed a couple of buttons. A click and a clank later Jimi Hendrix’s guitar came on shaking the rafters. When Hendrix was done, he pushed a couple of buttons and Eric Burdon and the Animals were belting out “The House of the Rising Sun.”
“I find these jukeboxes and fix them up and categorize the music and they will play whatever I set them up to play,” he said. “I have Pop/Rock, Country Western, I even have Lawrence Welk’s Theme Song,” Reeder said. “I used to sit around the television when I was younger on Sundays with my parents and watch Lawrence Welk. I like music.”
Everyone of these jukeboxes bring back memories of places and times in his life, he said.
“When I was a kid, I worked at Peach City as a dishwasher,” he said. “They had a jukebox and I really got to enjoy the music that came out of it.”
He said repeatedly he didn’t have a lot of money but if his cars, bicycles and jukeboxes bring back good times, those memories can make him a wealthy man.