Longtime Manitowoc business owner John Vogel’s future began to change with a single phone call late last year.
The class of 1975 Roncalli High School grad has operated Vogel Auto Body and John’s Used Car Sales at the corner of Rapids Road and Menasha Avenue for about the past 44 years.
During an interview with Seehafer News, John referred to the call that brought retirement into a clear focus for him and his wife Barb.
“I just had a call at the end of December out of the blue from a person saying he was interested in your corner if you’d be interested in selling,” Vogel expalined. “I waited about a week to call them back because I didn’t know if it was really true or not. I think the big man upstairs was watching over me.”
Vogel told us he later met with the interested buyer for 15 to 20 minutes.
“He says ‘Mr. Vogel it’s a deal.’ We shook hands and one thing led to another,” Vogel recalled. “January 14th we signed papers and the last two and a half months I haven’t had much sleep because I was doing everything, selling all items in the shop, the environmental stuff and we finally closed on April 25th.”
The new owner, he says, is Manitowoc Business Development LLC and they intend to put up a gas station mini-mart on the property which encompasses the body shop and an adjacent ranch-style house that Vogel rents out.
He was able to stay free on the site until today to, as he put it “get rid of almost 44 years of equipment.”
Vogel recalls that right out of high school he started picking up damaged cars and fixing them.
He started out buying a small building on Menasha Avenue from Louie Stefl, before later moving to his current location.
And John said if it hadn’t been for Ronnie Wagner from Ron’s Texaco, he probably wouldn’t have been able to open his longtime business location because he co-signed at the bank for a land contract.
With the sale of the business and the two buildings being razed, Barb Vogel said they’re looking forward to the new phase in our life.
What will John miss the most?
He said he will “miss the people. I love it, I’ve had so many great people that we’ve met over the years. And people are stopping in congratulating me, I’ve received cards, so it’s been emotional. Last Tuesday, we took the sign down as a family and that was really neat.”
Vogel’s wife, Barb, told us it’s been a roller-coaster of emotions.
“Just happy and yet kind of sad,” she said. “You know 44 years of people you’ve known and everything. I know he’ll stay busy, it’s golf season so he’s got a great group of friends that are going to keep him busy. It’s just a good time for him to say goodbye.”
Tuesday afternoon at 5:00 p.m., John, his wife and their two adult children, Joe and Elizabeth, had a fryout in the shop with burgers and brats, along with his favorite little drink of an old fashion, and that’s how he’s going to attempt to close up.
Then, this morning Quasius Construction of Sheboygan was to meet him at his business to hand over the keys.
After that, in the next 2 to 3 weeks, the body shop and the house will all be torn down.
John admitted “it’ll be bittersweet, but on the day the diggers come in I’m going to sit down and watch it. It’ll give me closure now.”
