by Kate Fraher
Kamal Alassal, proprietor of Dr. K Imported Car Service & Repair, is a local mechanic who came to Beacon from Lebanon, by way of Manhattan and Briarcliff. He stepped away from his work on a 1971 Maserati to talk about his business, the growth of Beacon, and war in Lebanon.
Do you have a lot of clients with collector cars?
Oh, yes, a lot of them. That used to be 50% of my business, and it’s come down to like 30% of my clients with toy cars.
How did you get involved in mechanics?
Well, when I was young, I always liked to do things by hand. I used to have a bicycle and I added lights and customized things. So since I was a kid I liked doing things by hand – with machines. My father, at that time, was a judge, so my mother didn’t like the idea of me being a mechanic – I was supposed to be a lawyer or something like my father. But my father said that just because he was judge I didn’t have to be like him. He gave me the energy to go to do what I liked. Then, when I was seventeen, not too far from my parents house was a garage, so after school and in summer time I went and helped and I became attached to it. Then a good mechanic was looking for somebody to help open a garage. So my father said, ‘Let my son partner with you. Let him be your partner and I’ll pay for everything. And that’s how I started my own business.
Where was that?
In Lebanon. And then the war came and things changed. So, we closed the garage, and I stayed with my parents for a while, until I got the chance to come to the United States.
How old were you when the war started?
When the war started I was eighteen. And it was a while, I was 23, 24, until I got the chance to come to the United States. It wasn’t easy.
To get here?
To get here was very hard. There was a war and you had to go down from the mountains to the city, to Beirut, to apply. I was in the middle of my process when the terrorists bombed the American Embassy. So, it took a longer time because they closed it for a while. And there were more restrictions, so sometimes you had to be there at three o’clock in the morning, waiting on line – long, long lines. A lot of people were trying to get into the United States. After two years trying, finally I got it. And then I came to the United States. I came to stay with my brothers. We lived together, down in the city in Manhattan and I couldn’t get a job at a garage right away because my English wasn’t perfect. If you don’t know the name for things on cars, you can’t work on cars. So I started going to English school, and working at a magazine shop. Finally, my brother found me a job in Briarcliff. That’s the place that really helped me a lot. It’s a funny thing – when I went for the interview, the guy said, ‘How much do you know?’ And I was very honest with him. I didn’t know a lot. A mechanic in Lebanon is different from a mechanic in the United States. Over there, they do only engines, brakes, not like here where you have to do things like electrical work. It’s completely different. One garage does only tires, one garage does only exhaust. So I was a mechanic, but I didn’t know how to do electrical, exhaust, tires -- I had no idea about those things. I was very honest with him. I told the guy, you give me a chance, you give me a job, and show me how to do it, the next time I won’t need you, I can do it. I just need a chance. So two weeks later he called me, and my brother was surprised. I got the job. I worked in Briarcliff thirteen years. When I was working there I went to school. I really worked very hard to improve myself. And I learned a lot. I become one of his top mechanics there and then I started doing side jobs, because I didn’t want to keep working for somebody else. You know, I wanted the American dream: to have my own business, to buy my own house, to make my future. I built my clients, and that’s when I came to Beacon. My friend had a warehouse on 9D, with expensive cars. I started using his place.
What was Beacon like when you moved here?
It was when Beacon was horrible. I mean, I had a few customers in Beacon but not many, mostly Manhattan and Westchester.
What do you think about the changes in Beacon?
It’s like night and day. When I first moved to Beacon, in the afternoon, forget it, you were scared to go to the post office. It wasn’t safe. Somebody would rob you, a lot of low-lifes all over the place. And now it’s like a completely different town. And that’s of course hard working people from Beacon who really want their town improved. And the mayor and police did a good job cleaning up the town. It was hard work. And you can see the difference, you can see the change.
When you moved to the United States, was the civil war still going on in Lebanon?
It was going on, but it wasn’t as bad as when I was there. When I was there the war was – it’s hard to describe. Well, it didn’t just start as an explosion. It wasn’t like 9/11, not like that. First, small problems happened with Palestinians and Maronites in Beirut and it sparked and got bigger and bigger. It’s like when you hear about a tornado. There’s a feeling that it’s coming. And then in the middle of the war it’s like something you get used to. It’s like when somebody hits you, the first couple of hits are very painful and then your body gets numb. My father was a judge, and we always had food, and sometimes, like five or six months he wouldn’t get paid. It’s like you’re sitting in your house and you run out of sugar, you go next door. You run out of bread, you go next door. Even though it was a lot of different people, it was like family. You go to the supermarket, buy the stuff, you don’t have to pay, they know you’re good for it.
Was there fighting in the streets?
Yes. It was all about religion. Christians fighting Muslims, Muslims fighting Christians, plus other militia. So, when you lived there you knew what area to go to, what area not to go to. One accident happened to me, but I was lucky. I went down to Beirut to pick up parts. I went down the wrong street – just one street. It’s like Manhattan, one block to another – I just went down the wrong block and there was shooting happening between two different militias. One bullet went through my windshield, just past my face into my back seat. I don’t know how I got out of it. I was lucky. Too many people die there just like this – the wrong time, wrong place. And some people, they know you cannot go that way, but they have to go to provide food for their family. And they go and get caught and they take them and they kill them. There’s a lot of innocent people who got killed just because of their religion – just what you have on your ID.
So they would stop people and check their IDs?
Yes. Sometimes they kidnapped them and let them go. Sometimes they killed them.
What was Lebanon like before the war?
Lebanon before the war, they called it the Second Paris. It was so beautiful. Everybody went there for vacations. Lebanon is a small country. You can go to the water swimming and, within two hours driving, go up skiing. It’s beautiful, the mountains. And it’s a shame what’s going on there – even now. When the war stopped a lot of money was coming in from rich powerful people. Lebanese people, they are all over the place: Brazil, Canada, United States, Venezuela, all over the place. So, money came in from people from outside to rebuild Lebanon after the war. And all the people fighting each other, they’re friends now, it’s like nothing happened. Everybody’s making money, people are happy. Now this war happens.
Is your mother still in Lebanon?
She’s still there. She’s fine. What happened lately wasn’t too far from
her. Like from Beacon to Poughkeepsie, that’s how close.
Did you follow the news closely?
Every day. Every morning, I come to the shop – I come very early, I go
on the Internet and read the Middle Eastern news and CNN and just
follow what’s going on. And then every other day I call my Mom, my
sisters, make sure they’re still okay. And my brothers, we talk to each
other also. They call also every day. And we just follow up on it, make
sure, you know, everybody’s fine. There’s nothing you can do, you know.
You just hope for the best. All of us, we feel sorry for either side,
in this war. There are innocent people dying on both sides and it
shouldn’t happen. There’s no reason for it. And now a lot of people
died and they’re going to go back and rebuild everything, in Israel and
in Lebanon. For what? Nothing. I’m against war. I don’t like to see
people die. No matter what religion they are, I’m against this. Why we
don’t all live together happily, there’s enough land for everybody.
What is your experience of living in America while we’re at war?
We think we are in war, but actually we’re not in war, here. The only one in war here is our guys who are in Iraq, fighting face to face. Here we don’t feel the war. We do our jobs, we can go to the beach, visit somebody close to us. We complain about the gas, we complain about this and that. We think that’s a war, but that’s not a war. War is when you can’t sleep because you’re afraid that a bomb is going to drop on your house, that’s a war. You’re afraid to get milk for your child, you’re not sure you’re going to come back, that’s a war. That’s my opinion because I lived it. People from this country should be thankful, everyday they wake up. I do the same thing, I say, thank God I’m here, thank God I have what I have. I’m not a rich guy, but I can pay my bills, I have enough for my family to survive, and I don’t ask for more.
Have you been back to Lebanon?
I was back about three years ago when my father passed away. It was nice. I don’t go back very often, because my business takes a lot of my time. And it’s expensive to travel there. But I have a lot of family here – and I have a lot of American family here, a lot of friends, that’s family. A lot of people think family is blood. That’s not true. Family, it goes by the person who really cares about you. It doesn’t have to be your blood and it can be family. I’m not alone here.
Would you say you’ve realized your American dream?
Oh, yes. I love this country. This country made my dream come true. When I went to Lebanon the last time, I didn’t have a hard time, but when I came back I thought, “Thank God I’m home.” I’m here. It’s my home and it’s my country.
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