Hey That's My Car Dude ! ©

I was talking to mrhaney the other day and a story popped out of my head. It was when I used to have my Dodge Dart.
I had the engine all done up and the interior was in mint shape. All I needed was a paint job. Nothing fancy, just a fresh coat to make it look good.
I remember going around getting quotes and trying to find the best for the least amount of money.
My father suggested Nick, a Greek man who worked out of his garage.
He was a strange sort of man who had six kids and lived in a dilapidated house with his family right down town.
The garage was next door and had been converted into a body shop for him to make extra money. I know he used to get welfare and his wife didn’t work.
He would paint cars for the extra money because welfare didn’t pay much and he only took cash so that he wouldn’t have to declare his extra earnings.
He reminded me of Pig Pen from Charley Brown.
He was always dirty and dusty. If he would take a bath, as soon as he got dressed he seemed to be filthy again. He was like a dirt magnet
His kids though were always clean and well fed. His wife made sure of that and he provided the money for them to buy all of what they needed.
I can not recall him ever going out to spend money. He was always home with his family.
He didn’t even own a car. He had no use for it.
His kids today are all grown up and all have great jobs and families.
Nick is not with us anymore though; he was killed by a drunk driver while driving home with groceries in the first car that he had ever owned.
That was 6 years ago.

I had gone to see Nick and I asked him how much to paint my car. He said he would sand it down and paint it metallic silver for $500.
My father and all the Greeks stood by his work so I said what the hell.
I was skeptical about the dust in the garage where he was going to paint my car but he said that he soaks the place down and there is no problem with the dust.
Ok I said to him when do I bring in the car to be painted.
He told me to bring it in 2 weeks and that it would take a week to get the job done.
A week without my car was a long time but I figured with the limited space he had and the cheap price it was well worth it.
About three days after I had given Nick my car, I was walking down the main street and I said WALKING, when my car blasted by me.
WTF is my car doing driving down the street, when it should be in the shop being painted.
I went home and told my father about it and he started laughing. He told me Nick didn’t own a car because he drove everyone else’s while they were waiting for him to paint their car.
This is how it worked. He had a car to paint and he drove the car he would be painting next. When he finished that car he would be painting my car and driving the car he would be painting after mine.
What a scam.
This guy gets to race around town in my car and I have to walk around and take cabs. There is something wrong with this picture.
This guy looked like he owned every car ever made because he drove a different one every week.
No wonder he didn’t need to buy a car.
Everyone’s car was his car.
I didn’t say anything to him but just waited for the week to finish and that’s when I would go to see him and see if he had finished my car like he said he would.
You know what?
Not only was my car finished, but my car looked great and it only cost $500.
I guess some people just live a little differently than the rest of us.

Cheers Nick, where ever you are.

Walker