The Dream of Working for Oneself

They called him Wild Bill Foster when he drove Detroit stock cars to victory at Saugus Speedway in the 1960s and 1970s. A racing accident helped him make the switch to running his own business. Now he’s just plain Bill Foster, a most contented muffler man, owner of Bill’s Muffler Service in Newhall. Foster, 56, and his wife, Marie, live in Agua Dulce.

I joined the Navy on the 13th of September, and I was 18 on the 15th. I got three years exactly. So no senior year of high school. The service did me a lot of good. When I came out, I was much more mature than when I went in. They teach you how to become an adult. I liked the Navy. Got to travel. Went to Japan, Korea, Indochina, Alaska.

When we got back, I got stationed at Port Hueneme. San Fernando had a muffler shop. I went down to have some work done, louvers put in my hood, that’s what it was. I asked him for a job, and he said, “Yeah, when you get out of the service I’ll give you a job.”

The man I worked for, he was a good teacher. He taught me the muffler business, taught me how to do special welding, how to stock a shop, buy the parts that you need per week and places where to buy them.

You’ve always got a dream you want your own business. You want to be independent.

I had a car wreck. Fouled me up where I couldn’t go to work for someone else any more.

It was a stock car, Saugus Speedway. It was just terrible. Car went upside down and came down right on the roof. The roll bars were there, but when you hit this way your body stretches down through the seat belt, and my head hit just like that, pow!

This doctor said, “You’ll never work again. Take this medicine and don’t exert yourself.” So you know he was a quack. He had to be.

Don’t do what the doctor says, that’s what you do. When you get a headache, go to sleep, don’t take the medicine.

This is what forced our hand. No boss is going to hire you from 8 to 12. The muffler shop when I opened was four hours, 8 o’clock till noon. So when I’d start feeling a headache, I could just lock up and go home. Sometimes sleep five minutes and it would go away, sometimes five hours, sometimes two days. In two years it was gone.

And that’s how it happened. And progress, you know, the town started to grow. I did everything. Mufflers, welding, mechanics, brakes, anything you needed we could do. Cars were easier to work on in those days, no computers. Spark plugs. That was it. It was mechanical, so you could change some parts and always make them work.

I am going to enjoy myself when I get here at 8. I’m going to make me a pot of coffee. If you’re here as a customer you can have some. I’m going to work on your car, and if not I’m going to tidy up. Shops like this get real dirty.

If I don’t get any customers at all, see that potbelly stove I’m working on, and I’ve got an ice box over here, an antique for her. I’ve got little projects that I can occupy my time. No money coming in, but that’s business, isn’t it?

The best part is being able to do what you want to do and enjoy it. I wonder if a doctor likes to go to work every day. If he’s a good doctor, I would think he would, just to help people.

I like to do muffler work. You can build something, create something out of metal, and make it sound nice, make it look nice.

You have to like what you’re doing. It’s like your wife. If you don’t like her, you’re going to get divorced. If you like her, you’re going to stay married forever. If you do it right and you enjoy doing it, why quit? I’ve raised three daughters, over 30 years, still got the same wife.

I haven’t had a paycheck in 30 years, and I don’t miss it a bit. I can tell when business is slow and when business is really booming. I can tell by how tired I am when I go home. I don’t need to count the money.