COME GET STRAIGHT

From a very early age Big Dogg was tinkering around with anything mechanical. Big Dogg’s dad had gas stations all through childhood. He was always there and fascinated with mechanics. In high school Tom worked on the shop class teacher’s vehicles. Tom was granted a scholarship, good for two years at a local vocational school. One for body shop, another for mechanics. Tom graduated with honors, he was off and running. It didn’t take long to decide the body shop wasn’t paying good enough. Mechanics it is.

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Tom knew he wanted to be at a dealer, not an outside shop. He craved the knowledge and structure found within the four walls of a corporate dealer. Tom spent a week driving up and down the main drag putting applications in at every vehicle manufacture. He decided whomever called first would be the manufacture he would work for. The local Ford dealer decided to give Tom, a green youngster out of voco a shot. He drug his tool set from his fathers gas station into the Ford dealer. Like most of us, the first job was bottom of the barrel, everyone laughed at him for taking it. He knew with hard work he wouldn’t be in that position long.

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He quickly won respect with the veterans and enrolled in school to further his mechanical education. His goal was to be master certified. After several years of hard work and several dealers later Tom wound up in a big dealer. His boss quickly noticed his work ethic and made him a team leader. All his hard work paid off. He was running the truck team as a Double Ford Senior Master Technician.

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Tom worked at the dealer for 25 years, and he ran the truck department for 15 years with 6-8 guys plus himself.