Portales tire shop celebrating 80 years

PORTALES — A Portales staple will celebrate 80 years of building relationships within the community on Aug. 19.

Auto parts retailer and tire shop C&S, Inc. will be celebrating its anniversary by inviting the community to the store from noon to 4 p.m., according to April Rutter, operations manager and granddaughter of founder Wayne Stratton.

“We are going to be serving hot dogs and hamburgers. We are going to have a bouncy house and a slide and a dunking booth,” she said.

Rutter added that employees will be in the dunking booth, and each chance to dunk them will cost a donation to a non-profit organization of the dunker’s choice: The New Mexico Christian Children’s Home, the New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home, or the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico.

A car show is also planned, and customers are invited to bring their vehicles, “but not necessarily really nice, fixed up show cars,” she said.

C&S is named after Stratton and co-founders Harry and Alice Cissell, who in 1937 started a fuel delivery service located in a basement office on Chicago Avenue, according to Rutter.

In 1955, they moved to a location on North Main Street, and five years later began delivering propane, she said. 1974 saw the business expand into an auto parts and tire store.

26 years later, in 2000, C&S changed locations to 300 West First Street, where it’s located today.

Rutter found it difficult to measure the impact C&S has had on the community during its tenure, but after working there for 20 years, she credits Portales for keeping the business alive.

“What I can say is that we wouldn’t be where we are today without the great customers that we’ve had over the years, and wonderful employees,” she said. “I love Portales. I really like the opportunity it gives me to meet the people that live here. I love everything about it, really.”

Alyssa Idsinga, general manager and Rutter’s sister, has worked at C&S for 25 years and values the relationships she has forged in that time.

“I have loved the customers. When I was in junior high, I filed the little tickets for invoices, just like they still do today,” she said. “And then, as I got older and worked there over the years, I met those people in person. That was kind of fun, because you knew their names, but never who they were. As I worked their longer, eventually I got to know who those people were.”