The oldest mechanic in Grimsby has announced his retirement after 63 years working at the same garage. Coy’s Garage will close its doors for good on 18 August.
Mo Kitchen started working for the garage in December 1960, when he was just 15. The garage still bears the name of his late employer, Tom Coy, along with the town’s old telephone dialling code.
“The brain’s working, but the body isn’t,” he told BBC News. Mr Kitchen has suffered two recent heart attacks and points to a “worn-out shoulder’ as reasons for his retirement.
He reflected on his past, telling the reporter, Kevin Shoesmith: ”I was 15. My stepfather said to me, ‘I want you to go out and get a job and don’t come back until you have done’. I tried the docks, but I was 15 and slightly built. They wouldn’t have me.
“Mr Coy happened to be standing on the front and I said to him, ‘Have you got any jobs going?’ He said, ‘Aye. Come back on Monday. You can have a start, temporary.’ Well, 63 years later I’m still here.”
Mr Kitchen said he prefers fixing “straightforward” old cars to their modern equivalents, naming the Austin-Healey 3000 as his favourite car. Pointing to a timing light in a drawer, he said: “Very few mechanics still use these. It’s all diagnostic machines now, which cost thousands of pounds.”
Looking to the future, Mr Kitchen tells the BBC: ”People won’t own cars. They’ll all be electric. People won’t be able to afford them, so they’ll be leased.”
He’ll retire next week at the age of 77.
Source: BBC
David Greenwood
Good on you Mo! Only 77? You lazy old sod…enjoy your retirement and hopefully keep driving in the oldest car you can kay your gands on.
Regards from a mere 70 year old mechanic.
Pete lancaster
Good for you! I hope you keep active, all the best in your retirement from a 70-year-old still working mechanic.