Brandon and Gary at the front counter, which is part museum, including the Tydol oil can given to Gary by Aubrey French. Photo : Scott Stevenson.

Brandon Nielsen, 32, isn’t shy about saying how difficult it can be working with his father, Gary, 68. They laugh about it, too, though, and they’ve been at it for years—about 15 years—with no plans to stop any time soon.

“Uh, it’s on and off. I mean, it’s like family. You know, you butt heads,” said Brandon. “But it’s going good.”

The automobile industry may be changing, but like so many other multi-generational businesses in the Haut-Saint-François, the Nielsens’ family tradition isn’t.

Nielsen’s Garage, once known as Nielsen & Son, started in the late 1950s in Eaton Corner, when Gary’s father, Orla Nielsen, opened his first shop after working for Mackie’s garage in Sawyerville. The car business was booming, as was the population. Gary quit school at age 13 to work in his father’s new garage and never looked back.

“He just loves mechanics; that’s his thing,” Brandon said as the three of us met for an interview in the back of the Sawyerville garage next to the tools, equipment, and a car with its hood open and headlights on. “That’s why he’s not retired,” he added with a laugh.

“I’ll die soon,” Gary offered, jokingly, as an alternative.

That helps answer the question many of us have about Gary, whose outer character often seems rather cranky.

“How are you doing?” a customer will ask him, and from time to time the answer comes back “Terrible!”

Inside the grumpy mechanic, in fact, is an incurable joker.

Gary acknowledged the work can be hard on the body, though, particularly the cement floor. “I’m pretty stiff, eh,” he said. “One ankle’s good, one knee’s screwed; my head’s screwed. What else is left?” he said, again adding humour to the sometimes hard reality.

Like his father, Brandon doesn’t see himself stopping the work, either. “You never know; it depends on the kids. But I like it.”

He also started young, finishing high school and starting in the garage before later completing a two-year diploma at mechanic school in Coaticook. A photo shows Brandon driving his grandfather’s 1971 C-30 Chevy tow truck some years before he was eligible for a license.

The antique truck is one of five the Nielsens still keep, which Brandon enjoys fixing and restoring. It has close to 600,000 miles on it and originally cost Orla $3300.

Brandon says his father’s hobby is collecting not only those trucks but tools and equipment too. “When he finds deals, he buys them,” Brandon said. “It’s his hobby. He doesn’t drink or smoke, so he buys equipment and tow trucks.”

“Half a beer in my life,” Gary piped in. “It was hot. I said, ‘Ew,’ and that was it.”
The front of the Nielsens’ garage is like a museum, with oil cans from the 1920s and earlier. Aubrey French gave Gary the orange “Tydol” one and told him, “Think of me when you see it,” and Gary said he’s never forgotten.

If it can be said that we each have our own ways of leaving a legacy, the Nielsens continue to do so in their family business.