Bill Best runs the small service shop — called Bill’s Service — located at the intersection at 601 Dryden Rd. Best claims he is “a very boring, uninteresting person.” He doesn’t drink, doesn’t belong to any fraternal orders, doesn’t go to church. Fortunately, Bill also “doesn’t have any secrets,” so after chatting with Bill, I can confidently say Bill is wrong on the above points: he is anything but uninteresting.

Best has been servicing cars since 1951 when he started work at the Studebaker-Gulf gas station in Owego. Best worked at Studebaker for 17 years before he changed jobs in 1967 and began working in the shop he now owns. The small stone shop has quite a legacy. William Henry Miller, the architect who designed the Cornell clock tower, partially designed the shop. The filling station opened its doors as long ago as in 1931 and is the oldest original service station in New York State. In 1971 Best made the station his own when he bought it from its retiring first owner. Best has owned it ever since and currently staffs it with the help of his son, Steve.

Having been in the automotive business 56 years, Bill has seen it all. He said one notable change in automotives is that cars are now predominantly foreign. In the 1980s, Best serviced all American cars, but now most cars are Asian-made. Best also said the increased computerization of cars is making servicing easier.

“Computerized cars are the easiest cars to work on if you have the tools,” Best said.

Bill’s Service is the only gas station in Ithaca that just offers full-service. Best says he has not changed to self-service because “the people in the area dictate it.” In 1972 Best announced he was going to change over to self-service. But, some Ithaca-area residents brought him a petition requesting that his station remain full-service. Best agreed not to change and hasn’t given the change another thought since then.

Full service gives Best a chance to chat with customers. However, during drivers’ breaks from focusing on the road, some seem to forget the transparency of car windows: “There’s nothing I haven’t seen that you can imagine while cleaning windshields.”

Best estimates that 96 to 98 percent of his customer base has something to do with Cornell. Best said that Cornell’s international connections have brought numerous notable characters his way. The Dalai Lama stopped at Bill’s Service for directions; the Secret Service had Best fix one of its cars. Governor Rockefeller stopped by Best’s shop as did Charles Schwab, Neil Sadaka, Desmond Tutu and Ed Marinara to name a few. Best calls his shop an “interesting international corner” and states that he has “met someone from any country you want to name — except maybe not the Vatican.”

I asked Best how college students have changed over the years, and he responded that in general students are “much better acting.” Best said that students no longer do things like the 1969 take-over of Willard Straight. In addition, Best said college students now dress much better and are generally better-looking than they were in the ’60s and ’70s hippy era.

A great perk of being the corner garage is that “all your neighbors are practically your best friends.” As a result, Best ends up helping people with emotional as well as automotive problems: he has to be “part psychologist as well as mechanic.” Best has offered advice about everything from divorces to deaths in the family. About 30 years ago, a young lady drove a white Saab into his filling station and asked for a dollar’s worth of gas. Best commented that you couldn’t get very far on that little gas, and she responded that she just needed enough to drive to the gorge to jump. When Best realized she was serious, he looked her in the eye and told her they “needed to have a talk.” Best sat her down, talked to her for over an hour and was able to convince her not to jump. The girl in question is still alive today, and Best receives a Christmas card from her every once in a while.

Each Friday at 6:30 a.m., Best gets a break from answering other people’s questions and gets to pose a few of his own. Each week, Best stands in as a guest DJ on the radio show of his best friend, Chris Allinger; Best reads the weekly trivia question. Best has been reading questions on air for the last 17 years and gave me a sampling of some ringers. What was the first car with front wheel drive? What is samiphobia? I’ll let you Google the answers to those, but I will give you the answer to a more important question — how long will Bill be running the shop on the corner? Best said, “When it’s not fun, I won’t be here anymore.” It’s difficult for me to believe that will be anytime soon.