Overheard a kid on the bus saying his dad's just a mechanic. Felt weirdly proud?

I was sitting on the city bus last Tuesday heading home late from the shop. This teenager was on the phone talking to someone, and he goes "Yeah my dad's just a mechanic, not like a real job or anything." It hit me different. My old man ran a transmission shop for 30 years, put three kids through college doing that "just a mechanic" stuff. I mean I fix brakes and oil pans all day but I also rebuilt a 67 Mustang engine in my garage over 14 months for fun. That IS my real life. Has anyone else had that moment where your day job and your real life kinda overlap but people still treat it like a hobby?

4 comments

4 Comments

tara6421d ago

My neighbor calls himself a "grease monkey" and he makes way more than my cousin the accountant.

joel_jones23h ago

Showed up right behind you on this one. My neighbor runs a one-man diesel repair shop out of his garage and he bought his house with cash in 2019 while my buddy with a marketing degree still rents. People see dirty hands and a dirty shirt and think you don't know what you're doing, but those same hands can rebuild a transmission from scratch or wire up a modern ECU (engine computer) without blinking.

tarabell1d ago

Just a mechanic" is such an old take, are people really still acting like that matters?

vera_lewis223h ago

Oh man, you wanna talk about outdated takes? I was talking to my buddy the other day who runs his own shop and he showed me his W-2 from last year. Dude cleared over 90 grand and works on semis mostly. Meanwhile my cousin with a business degree is still paying off student loans working at a desk job he hates. People forget that if you're good with your hands and know how to diagnose problems you can write your own ticket these days. Especially with all the computer work in modern cars, mechanics have to be part IT guy now too.