My husband and I own two different cars. a 1997 Subaru Outback and a 2005 Honda Odyssey, both extremely reliable. However, even the most reliable cars need maintenance and an occasional tweak. My husband changes the oil himself, but we bring our cars over to Hawthorne Auto Clinic for the big stuff. We are aware that we could find a cheaper mechanic, but this business prides itself on its green practices and is extremely involved with neighborhood issues. They even donated a $500+ value package for my son’s preschool auction. Twice!
So my mini-van is currently gutted in their bay, which meant that when my son’s school bus came six minutes early this morning, we were left without any transportation to get him to school on time. The school is a mile-and-a-half away from our house, but there simply wasn’t time to walk without a tardy. But then I had an idea, which was to ask the mechanic to drive us to school. And guess what? They were more than happy to accommodate our strange request, and I got to learn about their re-jiggered Prius hybrid, which gets 100+ miles to the gallon.
Like Sesame Street, these are the people in my neighborhood!
Love my neighborhood.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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And that is why, in my opinion, is the reason to patronize local businesses – they are far more willing, usually, to help out their “neighbors”.
I second your review of Hawthorne Auto Clinic. They are AWESOME, and worth the extra expense.
Thanks for the clip, brought back memories:). I love my neighbourhood too. We share caregiving, tools, extra produce and sports equipment!
Those are the joys of a closely knit neighborhood! Don’t you love that? I used to live in small rural town, where everyone knew each other, and things like this would happen all the time. I was relocated to a bigger urban area, and miss those friendly unexpected surprises! Hope your car is repaired soon 🙂
Driving your school bus route ahead of schedule is Not Okay. Ugh. I hope you complained!
Glad that you have such a great relationship with your mechanic. Local businesses FTW.
I just got off the phone with the school bus company who spoke to the driver who admitted that he ran all her stops early today. She was reprimanded and instructed to not do this anymore.
Duh, how many other kids missed their bus today? Apparently I was the only one to complain.
Katy
Awesome testament to the local business-person!
Plus, that video brought back a lot of warm fuzzies 🙂
Wow, watching Bob (?) doing that song again really took me back to the daze of two little girlies in our house . . . Brung a tear to the eye, it did!
Wow, that’s above and beyond the call of duty. My mechanic would have told me to take a hike….literally!
Hey! My Mazda minivan is sitting at Hawthorne Auto clinic as I write this – coincidence? I think not!
Don’t forget your Chinook Book coupon for a free oil change!
Katy
Wow, 100 miles to the gallon. Now that is exciting!
Nice to hear you have such a great neighbourhood.
I’d love to hear more about that re-jiggering!!
I looked at their website-awesome. Maybe I will drive to Portland to have my car serviced! Or maybe when we come up there this soummer to go to the zoo.
That is totally why DH and I patronize our neighborhood mom-and-pop businesses as much as possible–because they care about more than just making money off the community. We’d rather pay a little more and support someone who care about contributing to the health of our neighborhood.
Nice. I truly needed this feel-good-moment 🙂