By Tom and Jerry Caraccioli
When John Vashaw Sr. left his job at Flett’s Body Shop after 17 years it was with mixed emotions.
Alex “Slim” Flett Sr. had been like a father to him. When Slim Flett died, the business was taken over by his son, Alex Jr., and Vashaw’s thoughts of a future at Flett’s passed as well.
After promising a meeting in which Flett Jr. would discuss Vashaw’s expanding role as the body shop’s manager, a job Vashaw had been doing since the elder Flett died, the day finally came.
“He brought me in the office one day and I asked him about this raise he mentioned,” Vashaw remembered. “I sat down and he offered me a 10 cent per hour raise. I told him what he could do with that. After that, I didn’t know what I was going to do but I knew it wasn’t going to be there.”
Like his stepfather, who was transferred to the Oswego Coast Guard station to serve as the head cook when Vashaw Sr. was 12 years old, the self-made businessman took a leap of faith. He was a well-known mechanic and tradesman in town. But with a wife and growing family, he just hoped he could attract a clientele as he set out to open his own shop.
Vashaw ended up buying an old nursing home from Art Shapiro on the corner of West Second and Erie streets. He gutted the inside, renovated it and on July 1, 1974, opened Vashaw’s Collision.
To describe this course of action as a gutsy move is an understatement.
“A lot of people knew me from working at Flett’s and they loved Slim, but they eventually came over to me,” Vashaw said. “Though, that first winter was pretty slow.”
One of the first things Vashaw did after acquiring the property was to hire a young high school student who was good with his hands, willing to learn and always on time.
Jimmy Gibson would help Vashaw renovate the nursing home by working after school, nights and weekends. From there, once the business of fixing cars began, Vashaw taught the youngster about car mechanics. Fifty years later, Gibson is still looking under hoods and fixing cars for Oswegonians at Vashaw’s Collision.
“Jimmy was one of the first employees I ever had,” Vashaw said. “He was 18 years old, walking to high school and he always liked working with his hands. So, I hired him to help me start tearing down the building. Fifty years later, he’s still working for me. Ever since Jimmy’s been with me, he’s never been late and he never misses a day. That includes the last 27 years since he’s been driving from Williamson and Sodus. He’s the best employee anyone could ever have. I’d love to have 20 employees just like him.”
Today, John Jr. runs Vashaw’s Collision and their expanded office and collision shops.
While the original collision shop is still a big part of the business, through the years the elder Vashaw was able to shrewdly purchase more property and expand his once single garage shop into an expansive business that services at least 15 cars a day and employs 13 mechanics and service people.
“This is a true family business,” Vashaw Jr. said. “My dad started with barely two nickels to rub together and look at what he built. My mom would come over to the shop, answer phones and help run the office while Dad was fixing cars.”
“When I first started, I worked on six cars, answered the phones, banged out the dents, painted, I did it all,” Vashaw Sr. said. “When the kids got into school, my wife, Patricia, used to come over and help with the administrative work. That was a big relief because I used to have to jump out from underneath a car and answer the phone. She was my right arm,” he said wistfully acknowledging his late wife who died three years ago.
Vashaw Jr. sees the business as an extension of how his father has always lived in more than 70 years as a resident of Oswego.
“People come to us with their problems — whatever is happening with their cars — and we do our best to fix their problems and make them disappear. We really look at this shop, the city of Oswego, our employees and our customers as family. Our customers have been with us for decades. They are family.”
The younger Vashaw is not sure how many cars have passed through Vashaw’s Collision through the years.
“We work on about 15 cars every day and we’ve been doing that for about 35 years. Before that, it was about 10 cars per day for 15 years. Over 50 years, I don’t know the exact number but that’s a lot of cars. We do our best to try to take care of anybody that comes to us,” he said.
That also includes community organizations — Little League, Oswego Minor Hockey and others — that Vashaw’s Collision has proudly sponsored throughout the decades.
And with business not showing any signs of slowing, John Jr. worries about the next generation’s lack of interest in wanting to continue in the trade industries. He hopes he’ll be able to pass along the knowledge he’s learned from his father so the next generation of Oswego residents will continue to have Vashaw’s Collision to call upon for help when they have problems in the next 50 years.
John Vashaw Sr. no longer works 100-hour weeks, but he’s still present at the shop and garage. He has an office and is never far from earshot of his son.
“I was lucky,” John Sr. said. “I’ve had a great life. I had the best wife in the world for 57 years. She supported anything I ever did. What more could I ever ask for?”
Tom and Jerry Caraccioli are freelance writers originally from Oswego, who have co-authored three books: “STRIKING SILVER: The Untold Story of America’s Forgotten Hockey Team,” “BOYCOTT: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games” and “Ice Breakers.”
