Ask any longtime mechanic how their line of work has changed, and they’ll all probably say the same thing — “computers.”
And while the electrical components of cars have gotten more complex, mechanics have managed to keep pace with the complexities and keep automobiles running. Their customers have taken notice by voting for them as finalists for the Enterprise-Journal’s Readers’ Choice awards. (See other finalists in a special section inside today’s edition.)
Here’s a look at the finalists for Best Mechanic.
Charles “Uppy” Holmes
Holmes, 53, has been around mechanics all of his life. His grandfather was a mechanic and so were some of his uncles.
A 30-year mechanic himself, Holmes works for Magnolia Auto Services on North Clark Avenue in Magnolia.
“I grew up with them doing mechanic work and stuff,” he said. “And then I always liked working on things and fixing things, so I just leaned toward it in life. Every day’s a new challenge.”
Holmes has seen how vehicles have changed over the years.
“They went from carburetor to fuel injection. Now, they’re talking about all these electric cars,” he said. “I don’t know where it’s going to go for sure, but if that electric takes over like they want it to, that’s going to be a huge change for fossil fuel.”
In addition to computers in cars, computers in general are now part of the toolbox.
“When I started doing mechanic work, we were handwriting tickets, looking stuff up in the labor guide and stuff,” he said. “Now, everything’s gone to the computer. It’s all on the computer now. You don’t even have any shop manual labor guide or anything like that anymore. It’s all obsolete.”
Tommy May
Tommy May has been a mechanic for 39 years at Lamar May Alignment & Brake on Park Drive Extension in McComb, the business his father started.
May said his brother, the late Glen May, taught him how to build motors.
“Basically, my brother was a mechanic for a while and I grew up as a kid working on my motor bikes,” May said. “Through all that, I just enjoyed working and building things and taking things apart.”
Glen didn’t stay in the family business and instead went to work for Gulf South Pipeline.
“As a teenager, young boy, we’d build motors in the shop out here,” May said.
May said vehicles have changed “astronomically.”
“They used a mechanical mechanism to measure things, to where now it’s done by computer,” he said. “Everything’s gone to a computer. You can’t work on this new stuff without having a computer or a diagnostic computer program. Where before, you could do a lot of it by listening to it with your ear and the feel of everything.”
May said he expects computers will one day operate vehicles to the point where it takes everything out of the driver’s hands.
“That’s where everyone is more apprehensive about it. They still want to be in control to where if this computer system goes haywire, is it going to take me where I don’t want to go?
“Fortunately, I have not seen that yet, but that’s the big issue that’s coming down the road,” he said.
Gene Morgan
Gene Morgan decided to become a mechanic 55 years ago thanks to North Pike High School shop instructor Walter Ferguson.
“He seemed to think that I was more interested in working on stuff than the school — math, English, spelling, stuff like that,” said Morgan, who has since retired from the business.
Morgan’s father, Roy, was a diesel mechanic. He took his first mechanics course at then-Southwest Mississippi Junior College at the age of 16, earned his GED in 1969 and a mechanics degree from Southwest in 1971.
Morgan and classmate Johnny Stovall won a Plymouth troubleshooting contest in Jackson that same year in 1971. Their instructor at Southwest, Johnny Brumfield, entered them in the contest.
Morgan went to work for KC Oldsmobile on Presley Boulevard when he was 19. He was a mechanic for the Pike County Road Department for 30 years, where he spent much of his time with the county fixing pickup trucks, tractors, bulldozers and motor graders before retiring.
Billy Hastings
Billy Hastings of Midway Auto on Highway 51 in Summit was born and raised around mechanics and has been one himself for 40 years.
“All my kin folks, that’s what they did,” he said.
Hastings said he learned by watching his father Bill Hastings “tearing engines down and putting them back together.”
Cars have changed a lot since then, he said.
“All of it’s computer stuff now, mostly. We have equipment to hook up to them and check them out. We do what it says to do,” he said.
Chase Rutland
Rainbow Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep shop foreman Chase Rutland has been a mechanic for 24 years.
“It was something I was good at,” he said. “I grew up working on equipment and everything else and I just carried it over into a career-type deal.”
Turland said not only have cars become more high-tech, they’ve also become more proprietary.
“It’s a lot more electronics, a lot more computers,” he said. “It’s hard to work on it at your house anymore, for sure. They’re saying we’re going to go all electric on everything. You’re going to have to go to a dealership then.”
