a fascinating look at the early 40s car dealership's transformation through the 50s, and 60s, and obsolescence when the paradigm of selling cars was changed by GM to sell all of each years models before getting any of the next years

Stewart G took a look at this very old pencil that came with the 150 year old house he bought, in Kentucky, after not noticing it for years... and looked to see what it was about

 

And here's the story about it's history!

the Griffin family bought into an Oldsmobile franchise in Florence, South Carolina, sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s, when car dealerships would often have only a couple cars in a showroom

At the end of the 1940s, there was a shift in the way cars were bought and sold. Vehicle manufacturers began shipping larger quantities of vehicles to dealerships so that they could be sold off the lot.

Bob Griffin knew the value of publicity. Not only did he choose a high-visibility section of Florence in which to place his dealership, he also chose a modern design with plenty of glass to showcase the cars inside and a tall pylon lettered with the Oldsmobile name.

Throughout the summer of 1950, the inaugural 500-mile stock-car race in nearby Darlington was opened and Griffin began a relationship between NASCAR and Griffin Motors that would last for decades and provide reason enough for the dealership's recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Griffins not only advertised the race with the aforementioned 88, they also sold tickets to the race from their dealership, and were the first to register a car for the race -- then later grew into a full-fledged racing team, one that employed the likes of Buck Baker, Fireball Roberts, and Lee Petty.

Griffin Motors retained the Oldsmobile franchise until 1962, because in 1960, GM began the requirement for dealers to sell all of the previous year’s stock before receiving the next year’s vehicles. This requirement often resulted in major losses for the dealers as they would have to sell the year-old vehicles at a loss.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2018/10/11/griffin-motors-nexus-of-nascar-oldsmobile-and-mid-century-car-sales-added-to-national-register-of-historic-places

thank you Stewart G!