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B OOMPA A N AUTO B IOGRAPHY

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Page 1: BOOMPA when you started turning, it had a ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, tick, tick, tick, tick sound

BO OMPAAN AUTO BI O G R A P H Y

Page 2: BOOMPA when you started turning, it had a ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, tick, tick, tick, tick sound

CONTENTS

PREFACE III

HOW BOOMPA GOT HIS NAME IV

1 POOR LITTLE ‘OL J.H. 1

2 LET’S GO JOIN SOMETHIN’ 5

3 I GOT MY EDUCATION ABROAD 9

4 WHAT’S A NICE YOUNG MAN DOING PUMPIN’ GAS? 14

5 NOTHING HAPPENED TO ME BUT GOOD 19

6 WE STARTED LIVIN’ THE GOOD LIFE 22

7 YOUR DADDY IS A BETTER CAR SALESMAN THAN YOU 27

Epilogue THAT’S ALL RIGHT, I’LL FAKE AN INJURY 30

II

C H A P T E R

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PREFACE

Writing a family history is an honor—and responsibility— journalists don’t often have.

Initially, I became acquainted with the Click family by writing a series of Tucson newspaper

articles on Jim Click, Jr.’s 30-year legacy of business success and community philanthropy.

Then, I met the family’s anchor and inspiration—a man who overcame obstacles from

the time he was a toddler and, somehow, had the will, skill and determination to succeed.

While interviewing Boompa for this book, I saw him laugh, weep and show incredible

strength and forgiveness. Ironically, it would be the last time he related his remarkable story.

Thank you, Boompa for that treasured time.

— J O D I G O A L S T O N E

III

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HOW BOOMPA GOT HIS NAME

I was eight or nine months pregnant with my first child and was sitting with my folks

watching Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation.

The young man who played Jimmy Stewart’s grandson in the film yelled repeatedly,

“I hate Boompa. I hate Boompa.” We all laughed about it.

And I looked at my Dad and said, “I’m gonna have my child call you Boompa.”

— J A N E T C L I C K R U T L E D G E

IV

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C H A P T E R

1

POOR LITTLE ’OL J.H.

Two hundred years ago, William Wordsworth wrote a poem that

contained this short, simple phrase: “the child is father of the man.”

That phrase aptly describes and defines the life of James Harley Click,

Sr. (a.k.a. Boompa), who grew up in difficult times and circumstances

and became an exemplary man, mentor and model of wisdom, humor

and generosity of spirit.

This is Boompa’s life story —in his own words.

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2P O O R L I T T L E ‘ O L J . H .

ames Harley Click, Sr. was born on June 25, 1915—his mother’s 20th birthday—in Tuttle,

Oklahoma (about 20 miles west of Oklahoma City).

The first child of Bert and Alma Tuttle Click, he also was the first grandchild born in the Tuttle

family. As such, he was named for his maternal grandfather, James Harley Tuttle.

Early in the 20th century, “my granddaddy (Tuttle) had the brand inspection station on the Old

Chisholm Trail where 10 or 12 big ranchers in Texas would round up their cattle and drive them up the

trail along the South Canadian River. They had to segregate their brands so they could pay the fee to get

their cattle across the river,” Boompa recalled.

Later, after Grandfather Tuttle had acquired a large cattle ranch, the town was named in his honor.

Granddad Click came to the state in 1889 to homestead a 160-acre farm. Later, the Clicks moved

to a farm in Alex, Oklahoma.

“They lived in a covered wagon, and at the back, there was something like a dugout. And that’s

where my Daddy, Bert Click, was born,” according to Boompa.

“They had an old doctor in what they called Union City, Oklahoma. This doctor was the fire chief,

mayor and everything. My granddaddy went up there on a horse to get the doctor. When they got back,

she (my grandmother) had given birth to my Daddy, tied the umbilical cord, and was nursing him.”

In all, Click’s grandparents raised 12 children—seven boys and five girls. But, as they soon

discovered, their rearing days weren’t over.

J

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3P O O R L I T T L E ‘ O L J . H .

Alma Tuttle Click died when little J.H. (as he was known then) was just shy of three years old.

From that day until he graduated from high school, young J.H. lived with a succession of grandparents,

cousins and other relatives. He truly “grew up” in an extended family.

Bert Click took J.H. and his younger sister Carrie Lee to their grandparents’ farm in Alex,

Oklahoma. The young Clicks lived with Granddad and Grandmother Click for several years, until a

sudden change of events.

“I went to a little two-room schoolhouse. The name of that schoolhouse was Baughn. One day

someone in the Tuttle family came to school with the sheriff and they had a court order to take me out

of class and go live with them” in Fort Worth, Texas. Carrie Lee, meanwhile, went to live with their

mother’s Aunt Sis.

One of the Tuttles he lived with was his uncle,

Holmes Tuttle, who was about nine years older than J.H.

There were three other siblings in the Tuttle house, too.

“I was kinda raised as their little brother.”

His stay was short.

“The Tuttles were a very wealthy family. And they went broke and they couldn’t take care of me

anymore. It was during the Depression. And they didn’t know where to send me.”

J.H. returned to his grandparents (the Clicks) and that little two-room schoolhouse. Soon, he

began his upbringing odyssey again.

“I remember living with my great uncle—he was my grandmother Tuttle’s brother who was the

foreman of a ranch in Hominy, Oklahoma. And I lived with an aunt in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. She had

two boys at home—they were both a little older than me. One was a senior in high school. I stayed out

of school that year. They had a 100-acre farm and I did the farming,” he said.

They went broke and they couldn’t

take care of me anymore. It was

during the Depression. And they

didn’t know where to send me.

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“All I can remember is that I went from place to place and they’d say: ’Poor little ’ol J.H.’ They felt

sorry for me.”

J.H. returned to the Click farm, ready for his senior year in high school—if his grandparents could

find a place for him to go.

“They lived outside of both school districts—right in the middle of them. It was about five miles as

the crow flies west of their home in Ninnekah, Oklahoma and about 4.5 miles east of Alex, Oklahoma.”

He was accepted by the Ninnekah school for his senior year in 1933.

Days started early, he related.

“I milked eight cows twice a day. I got up at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. and went into the smokehouse. In

that smokehouse we had a separator to separate the milk from the cream. You had to turn it by hand.

And when you started turning, it had a ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, tick, tick, tick, tick sound…

and when you got through, all the milk was in one container and all the cream was in another.

“I did this daily until I got my diploma.”

Now he had to head to school.

“I rode a horse three miles and put it in a neighbor’s barn and put corn in a trough to feed it. The

school bus came by there about 200 yards away. I rode the bus 14 or 15 miles to pick up other kids until

we got to this little consolidated school in Ninnekah. We had 13 seniors—eight girls and five boys.

“We also had a basketball team. The nights after we had a game I had to ride the bus, get on my

horse, milk the cows and separate the milk. This was a fact of life around where I lived.”

4P O O R L I T T L E ‘ O L J . H .

I always had to work wherever I lived.

I was a hired hand for my room and board.

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C H A P T E R

2

LET’S GO JOIN SOMETHIN’

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6L E T ’ S G O J O I N S O M E T H I N ’

oompa graduated from high school in June 1933, just before his 18th birthday. It was the

Depression and jobs—odd or otherwise—were few.

“I had a cousin who lived in Minco, Oklahoma. His name was Tom Brown, Jr. They called

him ‘Junior.’ And he came down to my grandparents’ farm after I graduated and said, ‘Let’s go join

somethin’,” Boompa recalled.

That “something” was the United States Marine Corps, an elite unit with some 15,000-

16,000 enlisted men and officers at the time, according to Boompa.

The pair “hitchhiked” on freight trains from Chickasha, Oklahoma to New Orleans to enlist

in the Marines.

“My cousin ran off once and rode the freight trains with the hobos, so he knew the ropes,”

Boompa explained.

Junior’s father loaned them $5 to make the trip. By the time they got to New Orleans, they

had only two quarters left.

When they arrived at the recruiting station, they were told they could enlist, but had to pres-

ent their high school diplomas. Of course, neither had them.

“We talked them into giving us a physical, sign us up, and, if they accepted us, we’d go home

and get our diplomas,” Boompa said.

B

By the time we got to New Orleans,

we had two quarters left.

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While they were at it, they managed to get a comfortable hotel room and good meals with a bit of clever

cunning.

Junior was slightly color-blind and failed the vision test. Boompa’s cousin thought quickly and

responded, “Oh, no, I’m not color-blind. We’ve been ridin’ those freight trains and that’s cinders in my

eyes.” Junior talked the recruiters into putting the pair up in a high-class hotel (the Monteleone)

overnight—with $2 for meals.

The next morning, Junior had another physical. This time, he passed.

Now, the cousins faced a tougher task—how to get back home with no money.

“We went down to the Mississippi River and there was a black man who lived in a little shack on

the river. This man was a mute. He gave my cousin a piece of paper and he wrote on there that he was

educated. And we told him our story, about how we were trying to get home to get our diplomas,”

Boompa said.

The man showed them a railroad yard where boxcars

were ferried across the river late at night.

“And sure enough, that night we got in that boxcar

and it was ferried across (the Mississippi River). And we got across and caught a freight train. We were

young and fast and ran after that train. When I grabbed that handrail to get up there, my feet came off

the ground and I thought I was going to fall,” Boompa remembered.

The free lift didn’t take them far, however. Railroad police stopped the train in Hearn, Texas and

took everyone off.

“I thought we’d never get home,” Boompa said.

We didn’t have a nickel to ride

the ferry across the Mississippi

to get the freight train.

7L E T ’ S G O J O I N S O M E T H I N ’

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8L E T ’ S G O J O I N S O M E T H I N ’

The twosome walked by a nice house by the railroad tracks that had a well-kept garden and lawn.

Boompa told Junior, “I’m going to find me something to eat.” Boompa said he knew he wasn’t the first

hungry person passing through to do the same.

A woman answered the door. The pair told their story and showed her their enlistment papers.

They said that in exchange for something to eat, they’d do any sort of odd jobs or yard work. She agreed

and made them sandwiches.

Soon, Boompa and Junior were riding the rails again toward home. Unfortunately, when the

freight train stopped in Minco, it was the middle of the night and the two were sound asleep. They did

not wake up until they were in El Reno, north of Minco.

Junior knew someone in El Reno who gave them a ride back to Minco. Junior got his diploma, and

Boompa went back to his grandparents’ farm to retrieve his.

Now, all they had to do was get back to New Orleans.

“There was a barber in Minco who heard about our escapade. He somehow got ahold of us. And

he said, ‘My wife and I have always wanted to go to New Orleans. If you guys can rake up enough

money to buy the gas, we’ll take you.’”

That’s what they did. And soon, Boompa and Junior were off to Marine Corps boot camp in Parris

Island, South Carolina.

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C H A P T E R

3

I GOT MY

EDUCATION ABROAD

Boompa spends a day off duty in Shanghai while serving in the Marine Corps.

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oot camp was rough, Boompa recalled. “It wasn’t only hard to get in, it was hard to stay in.”

Afterward, he and Junior got different assignments.

Boompa went to a naval operating base in Norfolk, Virginia and did guard duty there for four or five

months. Next, he was sent across the bay to a Navy transport ship bound for Shanghai, China. Boompa would

join the 4th Marine Regiment there.

The journey took 86 days—from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

through the Panama Canal, to San Pedro and San Francisco,

then to Hawaii and Guam. He arrived on July 30, 1934.

“It was good duty. We did guard duty. Shanghai was a

cosmopolitan city. They had lots of bankers, lots of Americans

over there and they all belonged to the YMCA. The YMCA

had a basketball team. And all the Marines that were athletes

did really well because they got to play competitive sports

(such as baseball and basketball) with the civilians.”

10I G O T M Y E D U C A T I O N A B R O A D

Boompa poses in uniform.

I was transferred to the 4th Marine

Regiment in Shanghai,China. I was

there 30 months to the day.

B

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Boompa and his mates in the second battalion even

battled China’s 1936 Olympics team in basketball —and

beat them three out of five games.

Boompa’s Shanghai duty lasted 30 months. He left

in February 1937 on a transport ship. This time the trip

took 91 days, he said.

When he reached the U.S., Boompa was assigned to the

Philadelphia Naval Yard, where he completed his four-year stint in the Marines. Once again, he was doing guard duty.

“The Marine Corps was the police force of the naval yard. We were responsible for keeping everybody out

of there who didn’t have a pass, didn’t work there, or didn’t have any business there.”

While there, Boompa developed a serious skin condition

that required him to finish out the last three or four months

of service as an outpatient at a veteran’s hospital.

11I G O T M Y E D U C A T I O N A B R O A D

The four years I had in the Marines,

I gotta tell you, was kind of a

growing up experience. I mean

I used to tell everybody, ‘I got

my education abroad.’

Boompa (front row/ center) with his championship

Marine Corps Basketball Team, 1936.

Boompa with others outside battalion headquarters.

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My Dad always told me

about going to church

if I wanted to meet

people. So that’s where

I started going. And that’s

where I met my wife,

Margaret Johnson.

12I G O T M Y E D U C A T I O N A B R O A D

Boompa and Maggie in their courtship years.

When his tour of duty ended, Boompa headed back to Oklahoma. “That was in 1937. You couldn’t buy a

job. It was...what did they call it...the Grapes of Wrath time.”

He finally found a job at the M&P (Marlow/Phillips) grocery store in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. Boompa

worked there for nearly a year.

“When I got there, my Dad always told me about going to church if I wanted to meet people. All the kids

in town our age went to this Baptist church. So, I started going,” he recalled.

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13I G O T M Y E D U C A T I O N A B R O A D

“A butcher who worked in the same store I did had some old Chevrolet coupe. We got acquainted with

these two girls. One of them was Bobbi Willis and her best friend, Margaret (Maggie) Johnson. Maggie and I

started goin’ together.”

Boompa was transferred to another grocery store in Norman. He worked there and doubled as a gas

station attendant at the Skelly station. He made $15 a week.

One Sunday, a friend drove him down to Pauls Valley, picked up Maggie and they got married at Maggie’s

parents’ home in Lawton. The date: March 19, 1939.

Back in Norman, they found an apartment for $25 a month with shared kitchen privileges. A neighbor,

who worked for the telephone company, was making a more princely sum—about $150 a month. He had a

car, and he’d take the young marrieds out for an evening now and then.

“We’d go out and have a little beer on Saturday night at the honky tonk, and that was about our life—

me workin’; she (Maggie) never worked,” Boompa recalled.

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C H A P T E R

4

WHAT’S A NICE YOUNG MAN

DOING PUMPIN’ GAS?

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15W H A T ’ S A N I C E Y O U N G M A N D O I N G P U M P I N ’ G A S ?

ne day this guy came in that Skelly station and I filled his car up with gasoline. ‘What’s a nice

young man doing pumpin’ gas,’ he asked.

“Well, that’s the best job I could get. I work in that grocery store over there,” Boompa replied.

The customer told him, “I run the Oklahoma Manufacturing Company and we make park benches

and backyard playground equipment.” He asked Boompa about his family. And Boompa said his wife’s

folks lived in Lawton.

“We need some salesmen for that part of the country,” the visitor replied. “You could have that

area if you could pull off some way to get a car. You call on bankers and businessmen who are successful

and have children and sell them backyard playground equipment.”

Boompa accepted the offer and moved in with Maggie’s family in Lawton. Boompa borrowed the

family’s 1936 Chevrolet and started selling park benches with company advertising on it for $50. He got

a $25 commission for each bench he sold.

Boompa also called on local families to sell them backyard playground equipment. One of them

was the local Chevrolet dealer, named Green.

Although he made a good living, the parent company went bankrupt.

This time, Boompa was lucky.

“That Chevrolet dealer (Green) found out that I was out of a job, so he hired me to sell cars. You

had to have $100 to pay down for a demonstrator. I went down to my granddaddy and borrowed the

money from him. And I started selling cars on July 5, 1939.”

O“

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16W H A T ’ S A N I C E Y O U N G M A N D O I N G P U M P I N ’ G A S ?

Boompa found more than a few bumps on the road to success in the car business.

“I was a good car salesman. I made money. But I drank. I wrecked my demo, and they (the Green

Chevrolet Company) fired me.”

Jobs still were hard to come by—and now, Boompa had another consideration: Maggie was

expecting the couple’s first child.

Maggie’s father took Boompa to the Post Exchange at Fort Sill and introduced him around, hoping

someone might have a job. The reception was cool, Boompa said.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of bowling pins echoing

from a nearby bowling alley. “Do you ever have any trouble

getting pin setters,” Boompa asked. The answer was yes. And

Boompa had a job.

Meanwhile, he’d become friendly with the manager of

the soda fountain at the main PX, who asked if Boompa knew how to jerk sodas. “Sure,” Boompa said.

He worked there for two or three months, until the Green family rehired him.

After a few months, however, Boompa got in trouble again and was dismissed.

In 1941, Oscar Locke, a Lawton man who ran the Pontiac dealership, offered Boompa a job as

salesman. He did very well.

In April 1942, the U.S. Army formed three ordnance regiments populated with automobile dealers

and businessmen. Like he’d done a decade before, Boompa decided to see about signing up—this time

in the Army.

I was a good car salesman.

I made money. But I drank.

I wrecked my demo, and

they fired me.

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Why?

“Well, we kinda figured we were gonna have to go anyway, so we just went in,” Boompa explained.

Boompa recalled arriving back home around midnight, telling Maggie he’d joined the Army.

“Oh, go to bed,” she said, “you’re drunk.”

Shortly after he enlisted, Boompa was called to duty. His unit was sent on a troop train to North

Carolina. There were 245 enlisted men and nine officers there, Boompa said.

Boompa enrolled in OCS, hoping to avoid duty overseas. But when the U.S. got involved in World

War II, that’s just where he went—to the European theater of operations.

In February 1945, Boompa was put on a hospital ship bound for the U.S. The reason: his skin

condition had recurred.

“This rash would break out and they’d put this sulfa on me and I was allergic to it. And I’d go into

the hospital with my eyes swelled shut. They just didn’t know what to do with me.

“I think it was a mental condition as much as physical. I (also) think it probably saved my life.”

Boompa decided that the right

cure would be a visit to California where

he could submerge his oozing skin in

the ocean and clear it up.

17W H A T ’ S A N I C E Y O U N G M A N D O I N G P U M P I N ’ G A S ?

Boompa and Maggie visit Grandma Click (center) in Compton, California.

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So Boompa, Maggie,

young Jim and Janet went

out to Compton, California,

where Grandma Click was

living. Boompa swam every day.

He remembers “taking my grandma down to the beach and I’d get her a big beach umbrella and

she’d watch me ride those waves. I stayed in that salt water and got that (skin) stuff pretty well cured up.”

Shortly thereafter, he was discharged from the Army. Boompa headed back to Oklahoma and the

car business.

18W H A T ’ S A N I C E Y O U N G M A N D O I N G P U M P I N ’ G A S ?

Jimmy, Boompa and Janet en route to California.

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C H A P T E R

5

NOTHING HAPPENED

TO ME BUT GOOD

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20

oompa returned to Lawton and teamed up

again with Oscar Locke—this time in a Packard agency.

But the persistent skin condition, which required frequent treatment and care in a veteran’s

hospital, and problems with alcohol continued to plague him.

The business suffered, too. By 1951, the Clicks were packed and ready to move on—this time to

the Brumley Chevrolet dealership in Altus, Oklahoma. Boompa had been hired as the agency’s manager.

“We packed up our car with Jimmy, me, two dogs and our belongings and headed to Altus,” Janet

Click Rutledge recalled. She was in sixth grade; Jim was about five.

As it happened, they would start again in more ways than one—vocationally and personally.

A few years after arriving in Altus, Boompa had this epiphany: “I was sitting out in front of the

garage on the fender of a car and I was looking up at the building—it was kind of a red brick with a

black stripe. Painted in white letters across this black stripe was Brumley Chevrolet Company.”

His son, Jim (then about seven years old) was with him. He asked what his Dad was doing.

Boompa replied: “Jimmy, someday where it says Brumley, you’re going to see Jim Click Chevrolet

Company. And it came to pass.”

Meanwhile, a more profound change occurred for Boompa and the family: Boompa decided to

stop drinking.

B

When you drink, it’s not

what the whiskey does to

you, it’s what the whiskey

causes you to do.

N O T H I N G H A P P E N E D T O M E B U T G O O D

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21N O T H I N G H A P P E N E D T O M E B U T G O O D

“Janet probably put the first seed in my mind in the beginning of 1958. Before she went off to a

girls’ school, she called me to the back bedroom and said, ‘I’m startin’ to worry about how much you

drink.’ I remembered that.”

His decision to quit came in December.

“It was December the 13th and I’d been on a drunk. I drank whiskey for four days and five nights.”

A man came to the door and asked about a duplex Boompa had for sale in town. He apologized

for bothering Boompa while he was sick.

“Maggie said, ‘Sick? He’s lying back there drunk.’ And I heard her,” Boompa said. “And I got up

and looked in the mirror. I didn’t like what I saw.” The next morning, Boompa headed to Alcoholics

Anonymous. And he never drank again.

“When I made up my mind that I absolutely could not drink and function like I should as a father and

a businessman, this changed our lives completely. Not only for my wife, but also for my four children.”

“It was a whole new beginning. I came home from college (that Christmas) to a whole new life,”

Janet agreed.

Janet also recalled her sister Jill admiring the family Christmas tree that year. “Isn’t this wonderful,”

said the then eight-year-old youngster. “This is the first Christmas we’ve had when Daddy wasn’t drunk.”

From then on, Boompa said, “everything that happened to me—everything—was good.”

I got up and looked in the mirror.

I didn’t like what I saw.

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C H A P T E R

6

WE STARTED LIVIN’

THE GOOD LIFE

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23W E S T A R T E D L I V I N ’ T H E G O O D L I F E

nother important turning point for the family

happened in 1958: Boompa got an offer to move to

Tucson to manage a Ford dealership. The offer came

from Holmes Tuttle.

“He (Tuttle) called a Ford dealer in Oklahoma City named Fred Jones and said he wanted an

Oklahoma-trained automobile man to come to Tucson and run an agency he’d just bought,” Boompa

recalled.

“And Jones called him back in about a week and said, ‘Holmes, you’re not going to believe this,

but you have a nephew who has a reputation as an outstanding car man.’”

By that time, however, Boompa was doing well and on his way to achieving his dream—seeing the

name Jim Click on the Chevrolet dealership in Altus. He declined the offer.

A

Someday right up there

where it says Brumley, you’re

going to see Jim Click

Chevrolet Company.

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24W E S T A R T E D L I V I N ’ T H E G O O D L I F E

“If you have outstanding kids in an outstanding school system, why, it

means a lot to bring kids up in a place where they learn humility,

compassion and love.”

Now, the family began to enjoy life—and each other—even more.

“We kinda raised our family not only in church, but on a lake where we water skiied.” The Click

clan was known for their frequent outings on the water.

Indeed, the Click offspring—Jim, Janet, Jill and Joey—grew to be athletic, high achievers, supportive

and loving, with a spirited sense of sport. As youngsters, they divided into playful “teams”— the

Brownies and the Whiteys (defined by Janet and Joey’s dark locks and Jill and Jim’s lighter hair color).

Boompa’s drive and determination also is imbedded in each family member’s personality.

For example, when Jim Click, Jr. was awarded a full football scholarship to Oklahoma State

University, Boompa reminded him: “When you sign that scholarship, you’re signing a contract

for four years. You’re gonna honor that contract.”

But a new coach had come aboard (a disciple of legendary coach

Bear Bryant) who was tough on players. Many quit the team; Jim didn’t.

One day, Boompa received a call from his son. He was upset, unhappy and wanted to quit.

Boompa replied: “Well, you know what, people won’t buy these damn Chevrolets and the mechanics

are no good, and I’d like to quit, too. But I don’t know how I’d support your brother and two sisters.”

Jim decided to stay on the team and, later, became its captain.

When I got my life straightened out, I had

a great reputation as a car salesman.

Winners never quit

and quitters never win.

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25W E S T A R T E D L I V I N ’ T H E G O O D L I F E

“I think that’s what really taught him that winners never quit and quitters never win,” Boompa said.

When Jim graduated from OSU, he returned to Altus. He and his father had a frank talk.

“You know, it’s a natural thing for a young man like you to come home and take over his Daddy’s

business.” But Boompa reminded him that Altus was a small town (20,000 people) and he’d be driving

back and forth to Oklahoma City for social activities.

Boompa’s advice: “If I were you, I’d go out to California and I’d go to work for Mr. Tuttle. It does

not make any difference what you

do. Go to work sweeping floors,

or anything. Just don’t tell them

you’re Mr. Tuttle’s nephew.”

Boompa and Jim addressing a gathering in Altus.

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26I G O T M Y E D U C A T I O N A B R O A D

That’s just what Jim did. He started selling cars in California for Mr. Tuttle. But it wasn’t all smooth

sailing. Boompa recalled another call he got from his oldest son with concerns about his aptitude for

the car business.

“And I said, I want to tell you something. There are no shortcuts to success. But if you make up

your mind what you want to do in life, you can do anything you want.”

In 1971, Tuttle asked Jim to come to Tucson and take

over Pueblo Ford—the same dealership that had

been offered to his father 13 years before. He did.

And, as Boompa noted, “Jim just took the

town by storm.”

If you make up your mind what you want to

do in life, you can do anything you want.

Boompa’s Chevrolet stamp and a

letter sent to Jim, Jr. in Los Angeles.

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C H A P T E R

7

YOUR DADDY IS ABETTER CAR SALESMAN

THAN YOU

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28Y O U R D A D D Y I S A B E T T E R C A R S A L E S M A N T H A N Y O U

fter 34 years as an extremely successful car dealer and

prominent community member in Altus, Boompa and Maggie

moved to Tucson in 1985. The plan: Boompa would retire and

play golf. The reality was far different.

“It didn’t take long for me to recognize that I wasn’t

happy (just) going to the country club. I didn’t particularly

like retired life.”

So, Boompa went back to work selling cars—this time

for his son Jim’s burgeoning group of car dealerships.

In 1991, Boompa was named general manager of the Jim Click

Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Tucson. Employees told the younger Click: “Your Daddy is a better car

salesman than you.”

Soon, Jim heard from his mother, Maggie, who suggested that he put Boompa on the payroll.

Later, she gently recommended that Jim give Boompa a raise.

The son replied: “What are you, his agent?”

A

I didn’t particularly like retired life.

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29Y O U R D A D D Y I S A B E T T E R C A R S A L E S M A N T H A N Y O U

But, by then, Boompa had earned a key place in the company. For example, Boompa got the

company involved in program cars—factory cars turned in by leasing companies.

“For several years, I traveled around the country buying these program cars. One day, I bought 70

of them in Phoenix. Jim never said a word, except to introduce me (at meetings) as his ‘secret weapon.’”

Over the years in Tucson, Boompa mentored many — from general managers to salesmen — and

instilled in them the importance of honesty, fairness and compassion.

“A dealer doesn’t sell cars,

he sells people,” he said.

Boompa’s personalized license plate.

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E P I L O G U E

THAT’S ALL RIGHT,

I ’LL FAKE AN INJURY

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arly in 2002, Boompa underwent neck surgery that required him to wear a brace day and night for

eight weeks. Undeterred, he faithfully followed a regimen of physical therapy, which included several

face and jaw exercises—as he exaggerated the contortions for comic effect for his amusement and others’.

The day after the brace came off, Boompa got dressed in his business best and went back to the

“garage,” the dealership at 22nd and Wilmot.

But something didn’t feel right.

His voice was weak and he felt poorly. His doctor sent

him for some tests. The unfortunate result was a diagnosis

of lung cancer.

Two months shy of his 87th birthday, Boompa succumbed

to the disease. He faced death with the same spirit, will and wit with which he led his life.

Boompa exhibited those attributes in one of his final utterances.

Jim put Boompa’s prognosis in football terms—and, near the end, told Boompa that it was “4th

down, the ball is on our two-yard line and there are no time outs left.”

“That’s all right. I’ll fake an injury,” Boompa replied in a low, raspy voice.

31E P I L O G U E

E

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36E P I L O G U E

BO OMPAAN AUTO BI O G R A P H Y

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CREDITS

WRITER /PROJECT MANAGER Jodi Goalstone

GRAPHIC/WEB DESIGN Don Regole & Mike FransRegole Design

PHOTO RETOUCHING Judy Miller

PHOTOGRAPHY Jim Click, Jr. Family Archives

Chris MooneyBalfour Walker/Chris Mooney Photography

Getty Images