I was recently contacted by the son of the man I discussed in my 2019 blog post. So we talked, and this is what I learned.
JW (Joe) Hayman opened a service station/used car lot, at the age of 25, on Rt 13 in Westover, MD. After several years he moved to Manokin, and built a new shop with the help of friends and neighbors. His ran this business - a gas station, auto-repair shop, used-car lot (with maybe 30 cars for sale at any time), and a convenience store - from 1965 until his death in 2004.
His son (Joe III) who grew up in Manokin and who worked in the shop after school, describes his father as a “man about town” - known and liked by everyone. He was always whistling. In 1965 he was the first black man appointed to the local Board of Education. Over the years he bought several properties; one of them - a former elementary school near his shop - he converted to a community center, and eventually a three-unit apartment building.
Joe Hayman lived a long, happy, and productive life in the quiet community of Manokin, in Somerset County, Maryland.
The RV next to the shop is a 1966 Clark Cortez motor home, one of only 3000 that were ever built.
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Original Post
J. W. (Joseph) Hayman died in 2004 at the age of 90. According to the woman living across the street (and in whose driveway I’d parked), the business shut down upon his death.
Even after 15 years of abandonment and decay, there’s a modesty and dignity to this building - with the RV parked carefully along the side - that I can only think was reflective of the man who worked here. It left an impression strong enough that I turned around after driving by, to go back and look more carefully.
Why are you taking pictures? the woman across the street wanted to know. I like the mood here, the feeling, I said. Mood, feeling - she shot me a look. Why are you taking pictures? History, I said. Yes, history, she responded. There’s a lot of that here.