"My daughters think it's a very good idea," he says. He'll get to see more of his six grandchildren and he's got a few stories to tell.
Some of his early years were spent in Laird St, Castlecliff, where his parents built a home. There were 12 Spencer children and Clive was fourth from the youngest.
Their dad, Arthur, was a carpenter at the railways. He worked with Reg Andrews, a saw doctor, who would become mayor in 1962. Clive reckons that's how Laird St got curbing and footpaths - a little friendly pressure from a workmate.
"I started packing groceries in 57 at Bill Ward's corner store, Stewart St and Bute Pl." The Spencer family lived in Bute Pl then. He was still at school. At Tech (Wanganui Technical College, now City College) his teacher talked him into leaving school at 14. He would have turned 15 before the next school year began.
"I was going to be a telegram boy at the Castlecliff Post Office," he says. The incentive was the Postmaster's attractive daughter, but the job did not happen. "Stewie and Maisy Relph found out about it and said, no, you're working here."
"Here" was their GHB (Good Housekeeping Bureau) store in Polson St. With his wages he bought a brand new, black Raleigh bicycle. It cost him four pounds and included carriers front and back.
That year appendicitis put him in hospital for 11 days, and when he returned to the store he found Barry and Jean Hudson had taken over. They had kept his job for him.
"It was a busy shop, there's no doubt about it."
He remembers supplying groceries to the ships that came into Castlecliff wharf.
"In 63, that's when they were taking cars off the [ship] River City, 18 cars at a time, the old Vauxhalls and Holdens."
In 1969 Clive went to Hastings where he worked at a Shell service station and picked boysenberries. After a stint at Wilson's Bakery he went "seagulling" (casual labouring) at Napier Wharf. "The pay was phenomenal, but you worked!"
On his return to Whanganui he did six months on Imlay's number two chain under foreman Ernie Buller, then in May 1971, he started at Wanganui Motors where he would remain as a car salesman until 1989.
When the Criterion Hotel in Ridgway St was pulled down, Clive and a business partner set up a car yard in the vacant lot. Their next one was in Victoria Ave where Noel Leeming now has a store. When the partnership ended Clive set up shop in Heads Rd, next door to his present yard. He was there for a year.
"My old mate Bill McIntyre had the yard on the corner. He said, Clive, this is the best site. So I bought it. That must have been in 1999."
He's never been one for holidays but over the years he has managed a few trips, including to Japan and Moscow. He'd love to return to the latter some time where a major attraction was the Lada factory.
He'd certainly like to revisit parts of New Zealand. "I might have been there, but it was 20 years ago. The place has progressed."
Will he miss selling cars? Most definitely.
"If you're a straight shooter, every day is good fun," he says. "People are neat. It's your approach to them as much as it is their approach to you."
Clive has a reputation for giving a friendly greeting to everyone, familiar or not, wherever he is. Ask Clive how he is? "Bloody marvellous." Every time.
He has used his yard to grow more than just a business. He planted from seed an apricot and a peach tree. They eventually were cut down, but not before he had eaten loads of fruit and disposed of the stones in his "garden", where they took root. Over the years he has grown and given away dozens of fruit tree saplings as well as avocado trees. He also grows pumpkins and rhubarb.
Two cats have made themselves at home at Clive Spencer Motors.
"Stray came in when they started bulldozing the back section, so that must be 14 or 15 years ago." She had a litter of five, and Panther is all Clive has kept. He's not sure what to do about Stray and Panther because he's sure they won't settle if he takes them home.
"They are my mates, though."
Clive got a cat door built into the car yard office years ago. He has seen a few changes in his profession over the years.
When he started at Wanganui Motors, there were 43 car yards in town. "They were everywhere. A lot of them came and went because they thought it would be easy. It's a hard grind."
