An era in the Waukegan area business community will soon come to an end when Lake County Truck Sales, a company operated by four generations of the Anderson family, closes its doors for the last time.
Ron Anderson currently runs the business which sells trucks and maintains them in the company his parents started in 1969. He said it is the only job he has had in his life other than driving M60 Tanks after he was drafted into the U.S. Army from 1965 to 1967.
“I feel real happy because we got to know so many wonderful people but sad because this is my life,” Anderson said. “Highlights, I have so many of them. Work never seemed to be a drudgery for me.”
Lake County Truck Sales officially closes its doors Wednesday on Old Skokie Road in Park City after 54 years in the same location as members of the Anderson family and other longtime employees move to the next stage of their lives.
Neither Anderson nor his brother, Stephen Anderson, knew a career outside of truck sales and service. Their parents — Clyde Anderson and Evelyn Anderson — started Lake County Truck Sales as a GMC dealership in 1969.
Working there since boyhood, the brothers and their parents ran the business together. When their father died in 1978 and their mother, who ran the office, died 10 years later, it was the two of them, through other family members who worked there over the years, including Greg Anderson.
Now the parts manager, Greg Anderson was working at his computer Wednesday as his granddaughter sat beside him. He will end a 45-year career when the business closes.
“It’s been fun, especially with the people,” Greg Anderson said. “ There’s more than 200 years of experience between then six employees who are here now. We’ve seen each other’s children married and each other’s grandchildren born.
Larry Erickson is ending a 42-year career with Lake County Truck Sales. He drove a truck transporting steel between Chicago and Milwaukee until 1984, when he “had had enough” and sold his rig. Ron Anderson suggested he try selling tucks. He took the job.
Now Erickson handles sales and paperwork as well as making sure he reads the Lake County News-Sun every day. He said he likes the camaraderie where he works.
“We all cover for each other,” Erickson said. “I picked up a part in Milwaukee the other day.”
Handling the office paperwork for the past 28 years is Vickey Schaefer. With her husband already retired, she plans to do the same on Wednesday. The togetherness is what she said she will miss.
Moving to Waukegan from Twin Lakes, Wis., in 1961, Ron Anderson said his father got the trucking contract to haul leather to market for the Griess-Pfleger tannery located in the then-thriving lakefront industrial area. Home from the army, he worked on trucks rather than tanks.
By 1968, Anderson said his father acquired the GMC truck dealership near Washington Street and Lewis Avenue in Waukegan moving it to its present location on Old Skokie Road in Park City with a grand opening in 1972.
“We sold all the GM trucks,” Anderson said. “We sold the great big ones, the midsized light and medium duty.”
By 1988, Anderson said things started to gradually change. GM stopped selling the largest trucks, narrowing the line to light and medium vehicles. In 1996, GM had a different idea for the Anderson family.
“GM said you will buy a Pontiac franchise out by Gurnee Mills,” Amderson said. “At the time, we didn’t want to go $2 to $3 million in debt. We said no. We kept selling medium-duty trucks until 2010, when GM pulled the franchise. We became a truck repair shop specializing in GM.”
From 2010 through 2022, the business continued to thrive in its current form, but when his brother died, Anderson started to rethink the future of Lake County Truck Sales. He started to wind things down, knowing it was time to move to the next stage of his life.
“We were close together since we were little kids,” Anderson said. “I talked to his son, and he said he didn’t want to keep it, so I started winding it down.”
One thing Anderson said he will miss is the sun shining through the glass doors in the morning. He never got shades or took steps to dim the glare and lower his electric bill. He will not be missing it completely.
“My picture window at home has morning sun,” he said.
Eventually, making a deal with the business next to Lake County Truck Sales to sell the two buildings and land, it was time to close shop. Before he did, he held an online auction for thousands of parts and some trucks. The successful buyers will be getting their goods throughout the week.
“My health is not too bad,” Anderson said. “At 82, time is passing me by. I had enough of this, and I wanted some time to myself. My heart is still good enough and I can still do a lot of things.”
