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Photo by Jim Craven Rick Johnson wanders through his parts store and machine shop, Harrison Parts Co., the last bastion of blue-collar among upscale boutiques in downtown Ashland. The way Ashland used to be Auto parts store keeps its identity in midst of touristland BY DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- As you walk down Ashland's city center gazing into store windows, you see a vast array of hand-painted wind socks, imported carved egrets, and elegant wearable art. Then you see booster cables, wash mitts and gas cans. Welcome to Harrison Parts Co.: There's no incense burning here. As pretty much the last bastion of blue-collar left in downtown Ashland, the retail parts store and machine shop at 145 E. Main Street keeps serving its truck drivers, loggers and mechanics, just like it always has -- despite a bevy of boutiques and import shops that have moved into the neighborhood. "We were here first," said Rick Johnson, 50, of Ashland and the owner of Harrison Parts Co. "I don't care what's around me. "The whole town used to be this way." The shop has been in that same location -- smack dab in the middle of Ashland's own Rodeo Drive -- since 1928. Johnson started working there when he graduated from high school, about 32 years ago. Back then the neighbors were a dry cleaner, a men's clothing store and car dealerships. Johnson pushed a broom. Helped people at the counter. Started in on the machine shop work. He finally bought the place in 1984. "I've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this," he said, looking around the shop where thousands of fan belts of every size hang from the ceiling like a Martha Stewart home art project gone awry. "I could have been retired if I'd gone into civil service, but I would have been bored to tears," he said. He doesn't have a clue how many parts he has stacked in shelves that run to the ceiling throughout the 7,000-square-foot building. But he knows he has enough to give people what they need. "There isn't anything we do not service," he said. "From import cars to excavation equipment like dump trucks and backhoes." Down some well-worn stairs to the basement -- where Johnson keeps the equipment that cleans greasy cylinder heads into something you can eat off of -- he keeps the odds and ends. In one dark corner, he even has an axle for a chain-driven truck from the 1920s. Back upstairs, a giant stuffed elk, bigger than a fifth-grader, is displayed on a wall. Underneath its dignified glare is a sign: "No Bull About It!" (During the Christmas season Johnson's wife, Linea, who also is the company's bookkeeper, decorates the animal with holiday baubles.) It's that no-bones-about-it, we-are-about-service-service-service attitude that keeps the customers coming in -- even when they have to wade through Ashland's summertime swarms of tourists to get there. About 75 percent of Johnson's customers are commercial accounts; the other 25 are people who walk in from the street. Rex Bounds, owner of Bounds 66 Service in Ashland, goes to Harrison Parts for 90 percent of his vehicle parts and all his machine services. "I guess part of it is I've been 35 years with him," Bounds said. "And they've always taken care of my needs no matter what it was they were, they were there to take care of it." Johnson prides himself on finding everything he doesn't keep in his vast collection of parts. He's got more than 200 suppliers. "The other day I had to get a fuel pump for a '38 Plymouth," he said. "We found it." Johnson said he gets a kick out of the number of people who stop into his store just for a cool whiff of the metal, rubber and solvent smell. "You would be amazed at how many tourists come in and say, `Isn't it nice to see a real business'," he said. "The people who live in town say, `God we hope you never move."' Johnson said he doesn't expect to, no matter how many designer boutiques, fancy restaurants and art galleries press in around him. "We aren't different -- we are the same," he explained. "But everything else has changed." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA