Windscreen washing way of life
Patrick Minhinnick is most likely the longest serving windscreen washer in the country.
The 53-year-old daytime habitue of a central Hastings intersection has been cleaning windscreens for more than 15 years.
Quick with a smile, always up for a laugh, and never perturbed by the many rebuffs, he has developed a knack for cleaning windows while holding a smoke in one corner of his mouth while yakking or giggling out the other. He spins a good yarn, which is not surprising, given he spent much of his childhood and his working life in shearing sheds.
Some of his yarns don’t bear much scrutiny, and the line between fiction and fact can seem as fluid as the foamy liquid he sprays across the windscreens.
He was one of nine children born in Mahia and is of the Nga¯ ti Rongomaiwahine iwi. He was a handful as a child. The glint in his eye suggests that bit is fact. At 12 he and a younger brother became too much for their parents so were sent to live with their grandparents in Taradale, Napier.
He went to Taradale High School before starting work in the shearing sheds, following the path of both parents.
He gave up shearing and started washing windscreens about 15 years ago.
‘‘I’d had enough of the shearing sheds. This was a better job. It’s tax free, I can start and finish when I want and I don’t have to listen to anyone,’’ he said.
He and a handful of others came to national attention in Hamilton in 2004 when it was revealed they owed about
$100,000 in fines, but were content to keep the debt growing and pay it back at
$50 a week, while pulling in hundreds of dollars from motorists.
He moved to Hastings partly because people and officials go easier on him, and partly because he has family here. He has seven children, 23 grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. His late partner and mother of his children, Beryl Snowdon, died 15 years ago.
If he visits family or friends in other parts of the country – New Plymouth, Hamilton or Auckland – he’ll wash windscreens while he’s there. ‘‘Anywhere I go I’ll wash windows. The cops in other places aren’t so nice though. Some fine me $500 for unauthorised activity at an intersection, or something like that. I’m like a part of the furniture here in Hastings,’’ he said.
He’s had his run-ins with the law, and says he’s been jailed twice for short stints, most recently about five years ago for drink-driving.
Minhinnick said he was not collecting a benefit and he makes between $80 and
$120 a day. ‘‘I bank half. ‘‘The other half I use on shopping,’’ he said.
He’s there on the corner of Nelson and Heretaunga Streets every day, unless it’s raining, usually from 9am until 2.30pm, when he returns home to look after his grandchildren.
‘‘I really enjoy it. I like being out of the house and I get to meet a lot of people.
‘‘You get the odd person who yells and screams – maybe two or three a month.
‘‘People usually give me
$1 or $2. One fella gave me
$10 today,’’ he said. ‘‘Most of the people are good to me.
‘‘They say: good on you for getting off your arse and not sitting around doing nothing,’’ he said.
He’s recently had a moko put on half his face. It’s not finished yet. His mate’s tattoo gear broke down so it’s getting finished in the next few weeks.
Minhinnick has cleaned windscreens on no end of cars. He once came close to cleaning the windscreen of the car carrying former prime minister John Key.
‘‘I went to clean it but the security guys got to me. I like the new prime minister [Jacinda Ardern].
‘‘I saw her in Hastings before she was prime minister. She was in a secondhand shop. I like that about her,’’ he said.
He is not sure what the future holds, but doubts he will still be washing windows in five years time.