Story And Photos By Frank DiCesare
Don Bruno’s first encounter with a car wash came in the late 1950s, when he was assigned to the Naval Air Station Point Mugu near Santa Monica, Cal.
At the time, the region was booming with new development, embracing modernity and all its conveniences and possibilities.
One day, a friend drove Bruno through a full-service car wash in Los Angeles. The young petty officer was impressed with what he saw and had an idea — to bring a similar facility to his hometown of Lake Charles after his discharge from the Navy.
Bruno’s idea would eventually become Don’s Car Wash, a Lake Area mainstay that will celebrate its 50th anniversary next month. For the Bruno family, it is a milestone that was achieved through faith, hard work, excellent timing, and a commitment to customer service.
“When you’re selling a service, it’s all in the eyes of the beholder,” said Bruno. “When a customer leaves my car wash, I want him to feel that he’s got his money’s worth.”
The story of Don’s Car Wash is one rooted in family, friendship and community. After Bruno left the Navy, he returned to Lake Charles, and went to work for Devall Towing Co. as a tugboat deck hand. A few years later, he met Wilse Kleckley, the father of future Louisiana house speaker Chuck Kleckley, and Boyce Patterson. Both men were in the Air Force, and were partners in a Conoco service station on Broad Street.
Tired of working offshore, Bruno decided to leave his deck hand job to work for Kleckley and Patterson as a station attendant. It was entry-level work, but a vital first step in his entrepreneurial journey.
A few years later, during a conversation between the three men, Bruno broached the idea of bringing a full-service car wash to Lake Charles.
“We were washing cars at that service station by hand,” he said. “We would spend an hour washing a car. I told them (that) in Los Angeles I could get my car washed in 15 minutes. I thought there was a big need for a car wash in Lake Charles, and they thought it was a good idea.”
Wizard offered car washes ranging from 49 cents to $1.99. In an effort to increase repeat business, Wizard gave customers a punch card, which was punched after each wash. Customers with five punch holes on their card got their sixth wash for free.
“Nobody knew what a car wash was back then,” said Mary Bruno, Don’s wife, who used to work as the company’s cashier and bookkeeper. “I had a friend from Chicago who lived here, and she was elated when we launched our car wash, because she knew what a car wash was. Other people didn’t know. We had to educate them.”
Wizard opened at a time when car washes were full-service operations where work was done by hand. Back then, two men wearing cloth mittens stood inside a large tunnel with troughs filled with soap and water. Workers hooked a chain to the back bumper of a customer’s car, and pulled it into the tunnel, where the men would wash it down with their soapy mittens. As the car’s exterior was washed, additional workers would vacuum its interior.
The car was then pulled toward a wand that activated the rinsing mechanism. When the car passed the wand, it was sent through a large archway that sprayed water over its exterior to rinse off the soap. The car was then sent toward a blower that removed the excess water from the exterior, much as it is done today.
In those days, the car wash business was hard and dirty work, as Bruno’s daughter, Darla Meyer, remembers from her childhood.
“I remember those men always being greasy and dirty in the tunnel,” said Meyer, who manages Don’s Car Wash on Ryan St. “They had to work all through the night, because they were open all day long. I also remember being behind the cashier’s desk. If any change dropped to the floor, I could have it.”
A few years after Wizard’s opening, the partners decided to covert the Shell gas station into a convenience store. Shortly thereafter, they built a second Wizard location, in Sulphur. Over the next 10 years, they would open Wizard Car Washes in Beaumont and Baton Rouge, and a second one in Lake Charles, where Casa Olé stands today.
When the wrap-around brush was developed in the early 1970s, Bruno brought the new invention to Wizard, and the era of hand washing cars came to an end. It was the first of many innovations that would help bring efficiency to Bruno’s business, allowing him to grow his business by increasing his volume.
“When we started using cloth, we discovered that it would actually buff an oxidized car,” he said. “It looked like it might have gotten a wax job.”
Bruno spent the next 25 years growing his business, adding new technologies to keep up with the industry’s evolution from a hands-on operation to one run by computers. In 2005, he opened Don’s Car Wash on Nelson Rd. to offer customers an express wash for smaller fees.
“I had a friend in Baton Rouge, Ben Alford, who opened the first express wash in southeast Louisiana,” Bruno said. “I followed his lead, hoping there was a market in Lake Charles, and that it would take off immediately. An express wash turned out good results, and for the money, it was unbeatable. I had never opened a business before where people would call me up to thank me.”
Don’s Car Wash on Ryan St. remains a full-service operation. Employees hose down and vacuum out every car before it enters the car wash. Meyer said the company uses sophisticated computer software and chemicals that wash today’s cars with no abrasion and hardly any human error.
“You let the chemicals do the work, more or less, and then you remove them with the sprays and the cloth,” she added. “Our computers run everything. We have very sophisticated software that allocates how much chemical is used in each application for each car. We have keyboards in the tunnel room that show all of the relay switches for every particular package.”
Automation has been a boon to Don’s Car Wash. Today, Bruno washes twice as many cars as he did in the 1960s.
Three generations of Brunos now work at Don’s Car Wash. Bruno’s niece, Karen DiGiglia, has worked as the company’s CFO for 40 years. Meyer’s daughter, Dominique Meyer Darbonne, works part-time with her husband, Joseph. When the Darbonnes are not at the car wash, they perform as the lead singers of the Lake Charles band, The Flamethrowers.
Meyer’s son, Cameron, a senior at Stephen F. Austin State University, will be joining Don’s Car Wash on a full-time basis after he graduates next month.
“It’s a very hands-on business,” Meyer said. “It’s not the kind of business where you can put someone in charge and then back away. It’s about consistency — setting a standard and maintaining that standard as [closely as] possible with every single car.”
Plans for a third Don’s Car Wash on East McNeese St., between Fifth Ave. and Hwy. 14, are in the works. Meyer said her family hopes to break ground on the new facility this year and open some time in 2017.
For Meyer, the true secret to her father’s business has been his drive, coupled with her mother’s faith.
“My dad is very tenacious,” Meyer said. “If there’s a problem, he begins to work it out. He does not shy away from a situation that could be a potential problem for him.
“My mother is a woman of faith. She has prayed for my dad, and for that business, for 50 years. They try to live well and honor God. They put God first always.”
Her mother agrees.
“We believe that our faithful, loyal customers are the main reason for our success,” Mary Bruno said. “Our faith in God, also. We recognize where our gifts come from; where our strength comes from.”
For Don Bruno, 50 years of success in business is about being on the job and standing behind his service.
“This is not a secondary business,” he said. “I’m also not an investor. I’m on the job working. What we’re finding with car washes today is that it’s either run as a secondary business or it’s an investor with a manager in there working to make a buck. I’ve got my name on my sign, and you’ll find me in there. I maintain it; I manage it; and I run it.”
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