Over the past week, Jason and I have been trying to resurrect a 375,000 mile New York City taxi cab from the dead. As such, we’ve been running around junkyards and car parts stores and mechanics shops. One such store is Advance Auto Parts, which offers “Veterans Only” parking. Jason and I, keen to avoid “stealing valor,” always chose not to park there, though it became apparent upon entering the store that I had stolen valor of another kind.
A year ago or so my wife — tired of seeing me stain my nice clothes — bought me a Mercedes coverall from Pasadena’s famous Rose Bowl Flea Market. A blue coverall with a Mercedes star on the chest, it’s awesome but nothing really that special as far as coveralls go. I didn’t really think too much of it.
But the moment I started wearing this collared onesie I noticed people treating me significantly differently, and not in the way I expected. Parts store clerks and junkyard attendees and even restaurant cashiers are often downright deferential towards me, showing a respect that reminds me of how my dad — a 26 year-army veteran who retired as a Lieutenant Colonel — used to sometimes be greeted by much of the general public.
I’ve been paying close attention to this lately, and I don’t think it’s in my head; people call me “sir” more often and seem to respect my opinion more and seem to offer me better service. It’s similar to when I meet a car-person who has been reading my articles for years — you can tell if someone holds you in higher-than-usual regard. It’s just obvious.
This got me wondering: What is it that has people treating me like that Mercedes star on my chest is the medal of honor? Is it just the fact that I’m wearing coveralls? How much is the badge playing into it?
I’m not entirely sure, but I do think that Americans — and just people in general — respect hard work, and they respect expertise. I think that’s woven into the fabric of this country. When we see a surgeon in scrubs, we respect the knowledge they have and all the time they devoted to gain it. When we hear someone is an engineer, we often show respect towards them for the same reason. When we see a soldier, we often respect the sacrifices they have to make to their bodies to protect this nation.
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Obviously, I’m making some blanket statements here, and these kinds of things all depend on context. I was hanging out in mostly automotive circles, so the folks I was dealing with might be more inclined to show reverence towards someone they perceive as a technician for a German car brand known for making some of the finest (and most complicated — i.e. hard to fix) cars in the world. Still, it seems that we as a society hold in high regard those who do a difficult job, especially if it’s one that requires expertise and sacrifice.
Being a Mercedes tech definitely qualifies. We all probably know someone with an overcomplicated Mercedes that’s absurdly complex/expensive to fix. People who have to repair these cars really deal with some shit, and if they’re a Mercedes Tech they deal exclusively with vastly over-engineered German parts and wealthy customers who are often demanding jerks. That’s rough.
Anyway, I think it’s great that a job that is often referred to as “blue collar” gets that kind of respect. And I think that now — with a chronic technician shortage in America — the way people see mechanics is hopefully something that’s changing. In Germany, the gap between an automotive technician and an engineer is small, but here in the U.S., I have found there to be a giant social chasm between the “white collar” job and the “blue collar” one. It’s all silly, really.
I think we should respect everyone equally and not based on what they do for a living or how they look, but that’s not really how the world works. As soon as I tell the car-parts clerk that I’m not actually a Mercedes tech and that I had been stealing valor, the joy in their face shifts to disdain, they pull from the counter the packet of brake caliper grease they were going to give me for free, and their face flushes red with embarrassment that they actually asked me for advice on how to fix their car’s misfire issue. It is clear I have now become just another schmuck in their eyes; but I’m OK with that. It’s accurate.
Top graphic images: David Tracy; Broad City/Comedy Central
[Ed Note: If you, like David, have lived under a rock, I am pleased to explain the woman in the topshot is Illana Glazer from Comedy Central’s Broad City. You may recognize her from the very popular GIF below! – Pete]
Just find a rusty 300D full of mice that doesn’t run and use the Rust King Necromancy to return it to life. Then you will have earned your coverall logo.
“I don’t tell me mother I am an engineer, I tell her I am a piano player in a brothel”
Maybe I’m wrong here as the pics don’t fully show it, but it looks like those coveralls are a great fit, which means I would say they are the wrong size. I’ve found that all coveralls that “fit” me mean that I can raise the pitch of my voice by how far I raise my arms. By the time I’m laying on my back under a car with my arms up, I feel like I’m being castrated. So where I would typically wear a small, I wear large size coveralls. 😀
As for the actual topic of the article, I’m a licensed attorney who ended up doing number crunching for a living, so I got all the white collarness going on. But I was raised by flooring installers and a power plant employee. I cannot stand the white collar condescension. Most of those highly educated idiots can’t fix a faucet or a door knob, so they don’t have a whole lot to hold over others except massive educational debt.
I can totally understand this. There’s a reason I don’t wear a chef’s coat to the gorcery store. Last time I was on my home from work and just needed to grab ‘a couple of things’ and ended up spending a good 30 minutes getting asked either how to use certain ingredients, or people assuming I worked there. It’s like come on lady, Walmart doesn’t have a chef.
Sounds like you haven’t been to the canned food aisle. He makes a mean ravioli.
He probably did, anyway. I mean, you don’t become head chef at the Plaza Hotel at age 18 because your food is bad.
This absolutely made my day
I worked with a man who made a small stint as a Porsche mechanic in his youth, and he was still using his Porsche Racing coveralls but since at the time he was making wooden furniture, I’m not sure it was earning him a lot of respect…
It would have gone better if he was wearing Morgan coveralls.
I can attest to the jumpsuit deference.
In high school, my dad brought home paper coveralls a vendor was trying to sell him for the clean room at his work. My friends and I took those, some respirators we had, a broken Geiger counter we’d found, and piled into Phil’s beige Oldsmobile.
We pulled up outside a restaurant that had been closed a couple years, put on the suits and respirators, strung out some yelliw caution tape, waved the Geiger counter around, made some notes on a clipboard, then piled everything back in the car and drove away.
Many people drove by veeeeeery slowly, but no one stopped. There was even a short mention about us on one of the local news stations, but nobody bothered to get a license plate, so it was just a local mystery.
We were weird kids.
At one point I worked around the corner from a superfund site. I thought it was weird that ten feet from the sidewalk was a guy in a bunny suit and respirator – what about us civilians walking by? Do we need respirators. He did have a fancy h-nu chemical detector, so maybe he was planning to disturb the dirt and release some toxins. Still seems very weird to me.
Would one get more dates or hit on more wearing BMW coveralls?
If you mean “dates” as in court dates and “hit on” as in assault, maybe.
About 30 years ago, one of my wife’s then club friends slept with BMW mechanics to get free repairs, she was also a nanny to rich people.
Sleeping with a BMW mechanic does seem to be more reasonable than paying full price on repairs.
Try wearing an MTA conductors uniform. Folks will either blow you or shiv you in the calf.
It’s 50/50 on that.
Really rolling the dice there. (or I guess flipping a coin).
Something like that! lol
It doesn’t have to be an either/or. You should know that.
I mean, it did get kinky every once in a while.
If you enjoy your job, you never have to work a day in your life.
Barf.
For some reason, I now wonder what would happen if I wore my Nissan tech shirt that I bought from a Salvation Army more often….
See how people treat you when you’re wearing Yugo coveralls and get back to us.
I have a crappy white coverall hanging in my garage stall at my apartment. It’s spattered and smeared with all manner of goop. Usually, somebody thinks it is my murder suit.
Please, everyone knows a murder suit would be made of vinyl, how else do you get the blood to keep from staining?
I’ve got two fancy degrees and am a licensed structural engineer. I also spend a lot of time in the field and can understand and converse in the lingo of the trades.
Whenever I meet someone outside of the professional circle (think: kids’ parties) I love telling everyone I work construction. Sometimes you can smell the smugness in the air.
People who thumb their nose on this are not people worthy of keeping in touch with anyway.
So much this.
Agreed. And besides – how big a deal do those kids think running a lemonade stand or assembling iPhones is anyway?
I love this and do it too. I’m a pilot at a major airline and also do some ANG flying. I love telling people I’m simply in the national guard and observe reactions. The smugness smell is a good way to early-identify people I wouldn’t want to be friends with.
Probably the least offensive case of stealing German valor that I’ve seen
A guy in a Mercedes coverall who is married to a lotus… David’s definitely got respect from me.
But he’s married to not a real Lotus.
No, we’ve established Elise isn’t her real name. She might be Ms. Eclat Tracy.
Possibly Ms. Emira Tracy. A pretty lotus is probably more fitting than… whatever the eclat was.
Do we know if she scuba dives? Maybe her name is Esprit?
Maybe Evija if their a swimmer.
CARLTON Tracy
Type 47 Tracy.
My sincere apologies to Elise (not her real name), if she didn’t take David’s last name. Perhaps for clarity, we could go with Elise (not her real first name) Chapman (not her real last name).
Great idea, but: find a Ferrari one. People will carry your tools for you.
They will definitely try to upsell you on the highest tier of whatever product you’re buying though.
Engineer – I have worked in industrial maintenance for 25+ years now. I will not discourage ANYONE from looking at a career in one of the trades. You will work for your living, but you can make a damn good living anywhere in this country if willing to do the work. For too long society has pushed college on all youth as the answer, and it is not. The trades can offer security and job satisfaction for many, especially in modern society where all are looking for skilled labor. My 2 cents for what it’s worth.
Many of the smartest, most ambitious people I have ever met were electricians, ironworkers, welders, pipefitters, millwrights….
Here here!
Different paths for different folks, both of which deserve respect.
Thank you – this push for college, or worse STEM for everyone is toxic. Do what you love and love what you do. My own college age daughter has forsworn it for other work, she ultimately wants to be a pastry chef and small business owner.
My greatest sources of pride are the things I know how to do, not how to calculate. No slur on thinking intended. I like to think too once in a while.
We need more doer’s in this world. As an undergrad I worked in one of our labs, too many times I had to tell some engineering student “Put down that tool before you hurt yourself”. I built many senior projects for others (maybe that’s why I challenged myself with FEA and theory for mine). I grew up working on cars, bikes, and dad had a small woodshop. Mom thought nothing of leaving me alone in the shop space at 12 or so, trusting I would not cut off a finger.
We’ve told my daughter, who is 11, to either get into the trades or marry someone who is, only half jokingly. We’re lucky enough to live in a nice neighborhood with acre lots, and it seems the majority of the folks who live in it are in the trades or a contractor of some sort.
People always ask who the hell is buying $100,000 pickup trucks and my answer is always “contractors”.
And, some of the best people I’ve met in my life are mechanics, plumbers, electricians, machine operators and the like. Much respect to all of them, because without them we are all lost.
Bingo…different paths for different people, none less valid than any other.
That’s also where bars come in handy. There is one in every town, and everyone makes at least $30/hr. In the good bars (even the diviest ones), everyone makes $40.
There is always a job in every town.
Engineer here too. The right mix for me is desk job by day and trades evenings (sometimes) and weekends (mostly.)
I think you’d see less impact if it had a KIA logo on it.
But you’d get A LOT more questions. “Dude, my Veloster is making this weird ticking noise when I turn left at 75 MPH. Usually happens on the 3rd Sunday of the month. Could you take a quick look at it for me?”
Hadn’t thought of that – you’re probably right!
I think part of it is that they fit perfectly. I’ve got a pair of coveralls, but because I’m a fatass, they are far too long for me.
When you are a normal BMI and your coveralls fit, it somehow gives you +10 to your credential stat points. When you are large and wear coveralls, your credentials aren’t determined until you open your mouth when someone asks you a question.
I appreciate the belittling of the garment currently bringing you some unexpected respect from society by calling it a “collared onesie”. Way to knock that pair of self righteous, German pajamas down a few pegs.
Well, he can’t call it a speed suit, because he isn’t a super scientist
I recently bought actual work pants on Amazon because I didn’t have any worn out jeans left. They’re awesome. Very heavy duty material, triple stitched, and black so they never look dirty. And only $25! I wish I’d thought of that years ago.
Somewhere I still have a box of brand new fire retardant steel mill greens, doubt the pants fit after 20+ years. I also have multiple sets of FR Blues.
CQR makes the best work pants. They are on Amazon. Pretty badass clothes.
I have a pair, not Mercedes, just generic, that I sometimes wear when doing things under the car or helping someone sand and paint boat hulls, if I end up having go run errands like that or just get gas, I have noticed the amount of random strangers who ask various technical questions I am not qualified to answer does seem to increase.
I think coveralls in general must just cause other people to assume you know what you’re doing
Maybe people are looking for someone to respect these days. Any competence will do.
Time to start an Indie band. “Mercedes Jumpsuit Apparatus” has a nice ring to it, for when you’re Face Down in the dirt, in the junkyard.
Honestly, I dig it.
…and you may have missed the reference as well.
…What reference?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ux6SlOE9Qk
You even have a clapped-out van to go on tour with!
OTOH, maybe Mercedes Coveralls from the Pasadena Flea Market is something akin to the Hipster Holy Grail. Just roll into Advance with a mustache and fixie bike and you’ll be mobbed in the parking lot.
I saw a great SHELL coverall at the Flea Market the other week. Even had the coveted one-syllable name on the chest (it might have even been “Dave”!), but it was over $100!
At a certain point, it’s just hipster garb. $100 for a heavily-used coverall is well past that point. This Mercedes coverall, which was in mint condition, was $60, and that was after me trying hard to bargain. Still a bit too expensive IMO, but I dig them.
By the same token, going into a store wearing Volkswagen coveralls will cause the employees to immediately hide all of the rope and sleeping pills.
I don’t know, a sale’s a sale…gotta keep that economy rollin’!
Dang it… COTD