Dirty Vans

My mechanic just got out of a van and looked at his pants. When he kneeled on the carpet, both knees became covered with a black combination of dirt and hydraulic oil from the wheelchair lift. It's just another day fixing lifts.


Over the years, we have seen it all and very little is good.

It's not just dirt or the occasional bag of fast food trash. We've found dead animals, dirty diapers, dog hair, leaves, hay, milkshakes left in a cup holder for two weeks, and, of course fecal matter. All of this attracts bugs who grow big and fat feasting on McDonald's leftovers, just like the rest of us.

It's not all dirt. Two older ladies brought their van into us for repairs. When we opened up the glovebox we discovered a half-kilo of marijuana.

Once we cut the steel side-wall of a rubber-wheeled trolly car and had a flood of water pour out of the supposedly enclosed compartment. This was followed by a plague of cockroaches surfing on the last of the water as it poured out.

More than once, a mechanic has slid into the driver's seat of a van or car, only to find himself sitting in a warm puddle of urine.

We understand everyone has problems and keeping a vehicle clean inside and out is difficult for an able-abodied person and even more difficult for someone with a disability. But, extreme sloppiness can cause many difficulties. Trash of all kinds can get caught in moving parts, causing motors to burn-out or wires to be pulled-out and short. Not only do mechanics not want to work on a sloppy, dirty vehicle, but they want to do the job as quickly as possible so they can get out of the mess. Service writers and mechanics usually look at a filthy van and assume maintenance has been neglected or the vehicle has been abused, and usually they are right.

It is rare that we encounter a zealously neat customer, like Swede Snodgrass. An ex military officer with MS, Swede would make his wife Ann spit-polish the van after every drive. Then, she would park it in the garage. A little tennis ball on a string hanging from the ceiling of the garage marked the exact spot where the van was to be parked.

Swede, we appreciated the effort.