Car Wash Blues Vanish

    The speed and efficiency with which Emmett O'Brien students worked for customers who paid five dollars to have their 'car wash blues' vanish was pure magic.  The operative phrase was "Make it shine, sizzle and look hot."

    Owner Chris Cartisano of Precision Tune Auto Care in Shelton, CT and an EOB Parent Faculty Member (PFO) offered his business property for the Sunday, October 26, 2008 Student Council sponsored car wash.  Mr. Cartisano's son Sam worked alongside his Emmett O'Brien classmates.  These hard working students got down to business.  They sponged, washed and hosed their hearts out.

     "The students were very enthusiastic, they worked well together forming terrific teams." said Reading Specialist and Student Council Advisor Marie Meresko.

Machine Tool Department Head and Student Council Advisor Mike Varonka had hoped for good weather, "We lucked out with the perfect day.  The warm temperature and the clear skies were welcomed by all.  People were out and about and very pleased with our students and the results they produced."

     Around 1914 (long before the automatice car wash), two Detroit businessmen opened up their vehicle cleaning business.  The cars were placed in a line and pushed by hand through a "Merry-Go-Round" that resembled a questionable circle.  Those first car washes required considerable human power.  The cars were physically pushed around the circular form for different phases of the car wash experience.

     Before World War I there were fewer than one million cars in the United States.  The number rose to five million after the Great War.  By 1925 Americans were driving twenty million cars around the country.

     American involvement in World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor found the car wash business moving at a turtle's pace.  The war slowed down home grown technology for industries such as car washes.  However, after World War II, this business mushroomed. and trade associations representing the workers became necessary.

     The first automatic car wash in America threw its doors open in 1946.  Their sign read, " The First Automatic Auto Wash in the World."  Americans were hooked, and the car wash fad turned into a necessity to keep the car lovers of america secure in the knowledge that help for their vehicles was just around the corner.

     EOB students were certainly available, eager and willing to keep going until all seventy automobiles and trucks were spic and span.  Their efforts produced funds that will be used for school wide activities.  Students walked away knowing that in some small way they had been instrumental in contributing to the overall contentment and happiness of car lovers in the Valley and beyond.