Dad’s Garage : Memories of a Hard Worker

I’ve been going through my dad’s garage in Helena to clean it out and figure out what the family might want to keep, sell, or throw away. This past week, I FINALLY cleared off his main bench. That bench has been cluttered and dirty since I was a kid. There was so much piled on top of it that I actually forgot half the bench was metal and the other half was wood! 

The lighter-colored wood section at the end of the bench was where my dad would sit and take phone calls, write up bills, and plan out his schedule for the day or week. He used stacks of old notebooks to track appointments and cars that needed to be worked on. To anyone else, they might look like scribbled-up notebooks, but I just couldn’t throw them away. To me, they represent years of hard work that my dad put in to take care of us as a family.

My dad was a fireman, which meant he worked 24-hour shifts and then had 48 hours off. On those days off, he ran his garage as a mechanic. He was one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever known. Not only did he provide for his family, but he also gave his time and skills to our church. He was one of the designated bus drivers, taking kids to summer camps, trips, and wherever else the church needed. What people didn’t realize was that he often had to swap shifts at the firehouse to make this happen—sometimes working back-to-back-to-back shifts, then coming home and working in the garage, all while still making time for his family.

To my dad, his work in the garage was never “just a job.” He saw it as a ministry. He often fixed people’s cars for free, especially for pastors. He’d say pastors had more important things to focus on than car troubles. That’s just the way he lived his life—using his skills to help others without expecting anything in return.

There’s a verse in the Bible that sums up how my dad approached work:

Colossians 3:23 — “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

My dad taught me the importance of working hard—not just for money or personal success, but as a way to glorify God. He showed me that everything we do, even our jobs, can be a tool to point people toward Jesus. In fact, excellence in work can be one of the strongest testimonies we have, especially in a world that measures success by money alone. 

Back in the day, my dad was probably one of the best mechanics in town, and people knew it. He never needed to advertise. Folks would simply say, “If you’ve got a car problem, take it to Hoss—he can fix anything.” And if it was a single mom or someone going through a hard time, my dad would not only fix their car for free, but he’d probably slip them a few hundred dollars before they left. 

So here’s what I’ve been thinking about: work takes up a massive chunk of our lives. If you work 25 years before retiring around age 70, that’s roughly a third of your life. And a lot of people work longer than that. With so much of our life tied up in work, it has to be about more than just a paycheck. It’s an opportunity to use our gifts and talents to glorify God.

That’s what my dad did, and that’s the lesson I’m carrying forward.