By Deby Jo Ferguson
Staff Writer
Buddy Lowe, 74, is the son of John “Dale” and Omega Flemming Lowe. Buddy is the youngest and he has two sisters, born in Clay County near the spot where he now lives with his wife, Vickie. The couple met at Hayesville High School in spring of 1970 and married October 1970, in what he described as a “whirl-wind” courtship of six months. That courtship has lasted what will be coming up on 54 years.
Buddy and his wife Vickie have two boys, Jeff and Zac and three grandchildren, Whitley, Gage and Travis.
His dad, Dale built the egg building that is on the main road of where their home and Lowe’s Body Shop is located.
“Daddy built that egg building in 1957, then started buying eggs from local farmers who raised chickens and needed somewhere to sell them,” he said. “It was a family business with all of us grading eggs to sell. It was my job to wash them back when I was young.”
The eggs were inspected, sized and washed before being placed in cartons to sell.
“My daddy would take the eggs to stores in Franklin, Clayton, Robbinsville and Bryson City to sell. All of us played a part in getting them ready to go to market. It was hard work, a lot of hours and we were still barely scraping by,” Buddy added.
His dad was offered a job at Security Mills in 1961, driving a tractor trailer hauling feed.
“The chicken business was really booming back them. Everybody around here had a little chicken house and sold eggs just to make some extra money. Especially older people who didn’t have much cash back then,” Buddy said.
His mother, Omega Flemming grew up on Cherry Road in the house behind the body shop. At one time the Flemming farm was 200 acres.
“Five generations ago in 1856, my great great and so on, grandfather bought 100 acres for $25, then in 1857 he bought another 100 acres for $30. The state bid off the land trying to get settlers to come in and homestead the land. It was a big farm, but over the years it has dwindled down to about 20 acres including what our sons and we have together.”
His granddad had to sell off the road frontage over on Old 64 to pay the back taxes.
“Just farming and raising a family you couldn’t lay hands on cash and he got behind on his taxes. Mama told me he was so embarrassed he didn’t even want to go to town,” said Buddy. “Old people were proud, they were mountain people who are independent and they were good people.”
Before he even started school, Buddy started helping his mama and granny by catching the small eggs. There is a lot involved in grading eggs to sell.
“You had candling the eggs to inspect them. It’s called candling because back before people had lights you could hold an egg up to a candle in a dark room and see right inside it, looking for bad or blood places. It’s still called candling an egg,” explained Buddy. “My youngest sister cased the eggs and I know I’ve heard it a thousand times to be sure to put the small end down because it protects the membrane on the inside of the egg and they last longer.”
According to Lowe nothing was ever wasted in the egg business. “No eggs got wasted, we ate eggs till we were sick of ‘em,” he admitted.
“We saved all the cracked eggs and on Saturdays we would crack open five at a time and put in a bowl to look for any bad ones. Then we put the eggs that were good in a 5-gallon lard bucket and put in the deep freezer.”
The frozen eggs were sold to bakeries to cook with.
“I remember going to the bakery in Murphy and they would buy two of the five-gallon buckets at a time. That’s when we’d get to buy treats like a dozen doughnuts. While in school Buddy worked at B&T Grocery and continued after graduation.
“After graduating high school I went to Tri-County in 1968,” he said. “It was the first year they offered the body shop course and I finished up in September 1969.”
“In 1970 when Vickie and I got married she already had a job in Atlanta, so I found a job there working at a Chevrolet dealership in the body shop. Living there was different, but we were out on our own and it was nice. We stayed there six months then bought a house in Marietta, Ga. We sold it in 1975 and came home with a little nest egg.
“I worked for Don Woodard up at high bridge that first winter then in the spring of 1975 we built the small part of the house we live in now,” Lowe said.
During the spring they also constructed a building to paint cars in and thus begin their lifetime of being in business for themselves.
“Vickie was here with me when we went into business together that first day and we have worked together every day since,” he said. “Today she still keeps all the records, but in the beginning she was there painting cars with me. We painted cars or anything else they brought in and we did it cheap for the next 16 years.”
Lowe said things were different back when they first went into business because there wasn’t much money floating around in the early ‘70s. According to Lowe, things have changed a lot since then with so many people moving into the area the economy started booming and then it became a lot easier for the younger generation to get started than it was when they did.
“It was 16 years in 1992 that we built the larger, blue building for the body shop. We had our two boys and they were both raised in the shop with us. Jeff did work for Ron West while he was in high school at the auto parts store, but Zak always worked at the body shop,” he said.
In 2002 Buddy had heart surgery and decided it was time to restructure and let his boys take on more responsibility at the body shop. A few years later he got completely out of the business, but Vickie still keeps books there.
“I decided it was time for me to take on restoring cars for myself. My favorite is a copy of the car Vickie had when we got married, a 1970 Mustang Mach I. Even the same color, yellow. It’s just like new now and it’s her car,” Buddy said.
“We just don’t drive it in the rain,” Vickie added.
“We do take it to some of the shows and sometimes on pretty days we go out for a drive,” Lowe added.
Was Lowe’s work restoring cars over? There’s always room for one more.
“I also did a ‘62 Impala. I had one when we got married and when I moved to Atlanta. We also got a ‘63 Galaxy Fastback. We really liked it because Vickie’s dad bought a new one the year she got her driver’s license. It’s got a soft spot in our heart,” he said.
When asked what was next on his restoring list, Lowe replied, “I don’t know if I am going to do another one. All the good cars have already been bought up and it’s really expensive to restore a car. We’ve got the cars we care the most about and with summer coming up we hope to be doing a lot of mowing. Mowing and being outside, even the extra work of picking up sticks is something we both enjoy.”
With Vickie still active in the business part of the body shop and their granddaughter Whitley also helps out, the Lowes feel good about where the business is at this time.
“Jeff does the estimating, ordering and painting and Zac does the body work and assembling. They are both good at what they do and we are proud of them both,” said Buddy. “ You have to be a chemist now to paint a car, mixing up all the stuff for the paint. Earlier times we painted cars for $150 and now certain colors of paint can cost up to $1,000 a gallon.
“In April we will be 48 years of being in the paint and body shop business. We’ve had a good run and God has really blessed us. I’m just hoping I’ll be around to see how everything is taking shape when it hits the big 50-year mark,” he said.