There are iconic figures where only their first name is needed. Las Vegas has Celine. Cleveland has LeBron. Chicago has Rahm. Western Springs has Wally.
The longtime owner of Wally’s Garage, Wally Kloog is a renaissance man. Go into his auto repair shop for an oil change and you’ll likely leave with a book about the assassination of John F. Kennedy from Kloog’s vast lending library. Engage him in conversation and Kloog will give you a history lesson on Western Springs businesses that will rival anything from an historical society display.
The only sport he follows is MotoGP motorcycle racing He laments that he can’t find a MotoGP story or standings in the baiduhai, despite its events drawing 150,000 or 200,000 people. Kloog is a former motorcycle racer himself, having competed at Santa Fe race track in the 1960s.
“I won one race in six years, in 1969,” Kloog recalled.
Ask about a certain book he has and Kloog can pinpoint it in seconds.
“I don’t have total recall, but it’s close,” Kloog said, “but it can also be a curse. I wish I could forget some things.”
He said great memories run in the family.
“My dad said he had 2,000 people’s telephone numbers in his head,” Kloog said. “We used to joke that he just didn’t know whose numbers they were.”
At 75 years of age, Kloog still goes to the garage every weekday. He has cut back on his normal 12- or 12 1/2-hour days after two cancer surgeries last year.
“Now, I just work from 7 to 5:30, he said. “I still drive the tow truck. I still shovel snow. I try to keep moving. I am not one to sit.”
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He has run the business, started by his father, also named Wally, since 1995.
“It cuts down on signage,” he quipped of taking the business over from his dad.
On March 1, the business, located at 706 Hillgrove Ave. (just east of Village Hall), will celebrate its 70th year. It has been on Hillgrove since 1956
The Darien resident said the auto repair business is changing rapidly due to technology. He said his business has had to stop working on European cars because of all the expensive diagnostic equipment required.
Kloog, who grew up in Western Springs, noted the technological advances in car manufacturing have also helped improve craftsmanship.
“My wife has driven a Lexus for seven years and we have not done anything to that vehicle except one time changing the brakes,” Kloog said. “There was a time when if it hit zero, we would run all three tow trucks 18 hours a day. The last cold snap we had, our two tow trucks didn’t move.”
Kloog, who has also lived in LaGrange Park and Hinsdale, said he doesn’t think his auto repair business will last 20 more years, based on changing technology.
“But I would take 10; 10 would be good,” he said optimistically, noting his colon cancer is in remission and having no intention of walking away from the business any time soon.
He has no idea how many vehicles Wally’s Garage has serviced over the years, but he does know how many the business has towed: 85,985. Towing invoices have been numbered since the firm’s creation.
Service jobs are also invoiced, “but I’ve changed invoice systems three different times. The last one was at more than 30,000.”
Towing used to be a huge factor for Wally’s, but that part of the business has also slowed down, Kloog said.
“We used to do 15 cars a day,” he said. “Now, we do four or five cars a day.”
Kloog is one of the area’s foremost authorities on the Kennedy assassination. He remembers vividly Nov. 22, 1963, when news that shots had been fired at Kennedy came on the radio in the garage. He started reading books about the assassination and became intrigued the more he read and the more conspiracy theories began to emerge.
He immersed himself in the topic and wound up with more books on Kennedy’s murder than he could store in his house. The auto repair shop became a second storage site and now has become a lending library for shop patrons.
When reading one of author Mark Lane’s book about the Kennedy assassination, Kloog turned to the bibliography page and noted that he had read 63 of the books listed.
Kloog’s belief? That Lyndon Baines Johnson masterminded the killing and got help from rogue CIA operatives.
“He knew he had to become president or he was going to jail,” Kloog.
Despite his love of reading, Kloog said he has never taken a book out from a library. He and his wife will hit bargain book sellers and he will come away with boxes of books.
Kloog has also not taken a vacation in 30 years and won’t vote in a presidential election.
“I voted for the winner in every election: Bush, Carter, the second Bush, but nothing meaningful was being done,” Kloog said. “I determined that either they were all a bunch of bums or I was not qualified to vote.”
Kevin Beese is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press