Answers to your car questions
QUESTION
Dear Mr. O’Sullivan, I have been reading your column in The Hamilton Spectator for many years and have been meaning to write to you for almost that long. I wonder if you remember me and my family - Janice Sheehy, brother Michael and mother Lily? You helped us over 30 years ago to sue a garage in small claims court after the repair that they did to my car engine proved faulty (they didn’t torque down the gasket when they did the engine rebuild). Along with the help of Mr. Dick Edge at Halton Honda, I was able to get back the $500+ cost of the extra repair. While that doesn’t seem like a lot of money today, at the time I was devastated at the thought of having to pay it because the repair wasn’t done correctly. This was a very difficult time for my family and me. My father had only left about 5 years before and we lived on social assistance. I am happy to report that life got much better and both my brother and I ended up with postgraduate degrees and successful careers (Mike is now semi-retired but I continue to work). My mother had a very content life. She has been gone now for over 9 years but I think of her every day. I wanted to thank you for helping us. Your kindness is something that I have thought of so often over the years. Yours sincerely, Janice Sheehy
MY COMMENT
Your story is a testament of how good people get rewarded after perseverance and the rewards that come with hard work and I hope that you do not mind me sharing your success with my readers. I also want to personally congratulate you and your brother on your successes in life. I certainly know what it is like to be struggling to make ends meet and the sacrifices that my parents made to keep us dressed and properly fed. Like you and your brother, all my siblings have made good career choices and the struggle to survive in the early years have taught us to persevere and when the path got tough, we just got tougher.
QUESTION
I would like your advice on a matter that I am having with my daughter who now lives in the US. Her youngest son wants to be a mechanic like his grandfather but my daughter believes that the only good jobs in the future are with a collage or university degree. My husband was a mechanic all his life and has provided well for us. I have tried to tell her, as well as her father, that the trades are an assurance that you will have a job for life. She loves reading your column when she comes home so a short note from you might help her to change her mind and let her son choose his own path in life.
ANSWER
With the reported necessity of comfort dogs, crying rooms and coloring books being circulated to university students and sanctioned by many of the professors in some of the US universities because of a disappointment of not getting their own way, I would think twice about sending my children to some of these universities with the hopes of getting them prepared for some of the failures that might come their way during their life time. University education should be the mechanism to help young minds grow and prepare them for the future and in my opinion comfort dogs, crying rooms and coloring books do not prepare them for anything other than looking for a way to blame someone else should they fail to take advantage of understanding that hard work, not self pity is the path to success. Without speaking to your grandson, I haven’t any way of knowing if he has the ability to pursue a trade, where in Ontario the requirements are to obtain a high school diploma and or collage degree. You will also find that many university graduates are now pursuing the trades because they are good paying steady jobs and their basic university degrees are not landing them the good paying jobs that they had hoped for. To become a mechanic today in Ontario is far more difficult than when I applied and received my mechanical certificate and I sometimes wonder if I would pass the test today. To become a licensed technician today, you have to master such things as the use of computers, reading graphics, math and the ability to communicate properly. Have your daughter look up what university educated jobs are now being taken away by the use of robots and she will find that most of the hands on trades such as technicians, electricians, plumbers, framers, brick layers and the list goes on, cannot at this time or in the near future, be taken over by the use of robots.
DEAR READERS
Today, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., a Cruise for Kids event is going to be held at Mohawk College, Stoney Creek Campus, 481 Barton Street East, Hamilton. The proceeds will be going to the Mohawk Apprenticeship programs. Classic cars/ trucks and antique racecars will be on display. I will be there around 1:30 p.m. where I hope to see many of my readers.
PS Readers, Please be advised that all emails cannot be answered. Send your questions (be sure to include your address) by email to: dennis.osullivan@cogeco.ca or mail: Box 10019, Winona, ON L8E 5R1