Tiretown

There used to be a tire business on 176th Street just south of Highway 10 called Tiretown. It was the first business that people travelling north saw in Cloverdale. The name really bothered my mother because she thought that people travelling through would think they were driving through the town of Tiretown instead of the town of Cloverdale.

In the early 70's when the Cloverdale Bypass and the bridge going over the train tracks was built, Tiretown ended up being on the dead end section of 176th Street where a few business remained, cut off due to the new bridge.

My father has been buying tires there for decades and for most of that time its been run by a man named Gordy, one of these good neighbour type businessmen offering great service and good prices. In the late 70's my father had a couple of extra tires from a truck he used to own. He brought them down to Tiretown and had them keep them on consignment. He told Gordy when they sold they'd both make a little money. After a year or so Gordy called and said the tires had been sold and come down and pick up a cheque. I was driving by that time and my first car was a VW Beatle Bug. My father went down and made a deal to outfit my car with good winter tires on the back. After that whenever it snowed my father took the Beatle because he said it was the best car we had for driving in the snow.

Eventually I started using Tiretown to buy my tires and sometime over the years the name evolved into Tireland.

My front right tire was low and I filled it with air about a week ago. Today I noticed it was down again and decided to take it over to Tireland to get them to look at it. Probably picked up a nail on the road somewhere. They do repairs quickly and very inexpensively. I drove up and there's a sign on the door that they're closed and now operating out of the Langley Tireland. That's too bad. I'd heard the building had been sold and the plan was to close down one of these days but its always a surprise when that happens. A tire shop has been operating in that spot as far back as I can remember.

Heads up to anyone heading that way for tires. Tireland, formerly Tiretown, is no longer operating in Cloverdale.