Rick Sovde was working as a meat cutter when a strike took him off the job for more than five months. Uncertain about his employer’s future and eager to get back to work, he started putting in applications. He quickly found a job as a Cleaner at the old Nicollet Garage – the start of what would become a 35-year career in Bus Maintenance. Sovde said his long tenure was largely a result of enjoying the people he worked with. “It was almost like a family working there,” he said. “We weren’t just work cohorts but friends in life.” Sovde said he also liked working in the old Snelling and Nicollet garages, environments that weren’t always clean but were rich with character and history. “When you were working in the bays in the early morning and all the old flexibles were pulling out, they’d start up and smoke like crazy,” he said. “You could hardly see the hand in front of your face it got so thick.” Sovde spent the majority of his career at South Garage, where he enjoyed making friends with mechanics and operators alike. While at South, Sovde became known for rebuilding seats and mirrors – efforts that began as a way to pass the time after finishing work orders but would become areas of unique expertise. Sovde rebuilt hundreds of seats and thousands of mirrors during his career; he also passed the knowledge on to Mechanic-Technicians at other garages. “I started doing it on the side but, just like anybody, you get really good at it when do it so much,” he said. Sovde retired in August 2016, with plans to spend more time golfing, hunting and taking weekend trips with his his wife, Lisa Sovde, an Asset Management Clerk at Metro Transit.