LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - On Veterans Day you’ll find Willie Harris in his Air Force uniform. You’ll also most likely find him in The Wagon Shop, where what he learned in the Air Force is on full display.
“I was an air frame repairman,” Harris said of his 6 years in the service. “I could go out there today on the body or wings or any part of the airplane, the fuselage and fix anything that’s wrong with it and it’s been well over 40 something years since I got out of there. I loved the Air Force. I still have my uniform. I wear it on Veterans Day. It’s not the original uniform because I’ve grown just a little bit. But, I like to wear it on Veterans Day because that means a lot to me. It means a whole lot.”
Harris said his challenge in fixing things came during his time in Vietnam when aircraft came to him severely damaged. His challenge these days is bringing the “Old West” back to life.
“I started with a razor blade and a hacksaw blade and now I have 12 Dremel tools and two scroll saws, a band saw,” Harris said. “I can just about build anything when it comes to building a wagon.”
Harris constructs small-scale chuck wagons and other forms of transportation from western heritage, including saddles. It’s a hobby that takes up most of his time when he’s not at his day job or out to dinner with his wife, Donna, who takes care of the business of The Wagon Shop.
“It takes a lot of years to become an artist,” Harris said. “Most of the time when you become an artist, you don’t live very long and you don’t get to see how good your work is because you are gone. I love it. I do. I go out in the shop and it takes three months to turn one of these out from scratch from the time I start till I finish and that’s a lot of work. I don’t work little bitty hours, like 14-16 hours a day but it seems like five minutes in my shop. That’s where I spend a lot of time.”
His eye for proportions and dedication to his work, he said, comes from the discipline he learned in the Air Force. He is also a self-proclaimed perfectionist. You can see that in his final products and the cleanliness of his shop, home and closet, as well as the spotless CorVette, Lincoln Town Car and Lincoln Mark LT he has in the garage.
“I like things done right,” Harris said. “I like things clean. I like things neat and I like things where it goes. I want it to be there.”
The work done in The Wagon Shop is impeccable down to the last detail, even the working brakes on the wagon. Harris wouldn’t have it any other way and neither would the Air Force.
“I’m still as military as military can get,” he said.
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