04ctd

kid from my church called me early this morning,

needed waterpump replaced on a Chebby p'k'up

i canceled my plans with the wife (easy - she went Christmas shopping by herself)

and he came on over. we spent the day monkeying with it, i'd take something loose, then let him disassemble it.

we did it together, not me doing and him watching.

sure enough, he let the gasket drop on his side, so he got to do it ALL again. just had a good time, no yelling, no fussing, just turning wrenches, showing him things worked, showed him about threadlocker.

and "form a gasket" to hold the gasket in place the second time,
showed him how to loosen the tensioner & get the new belt on.

let him use the air ratchet & the cordless drill.

asked where his Pops was, he said "at home, in the recliner, that's what constitutes his weekend"

those are some of the BEST memories i have of my life, working on some piece of junk, getting it to run, and thinking that my DAD could fix anything that did not have a metric nut on it.

just felt like i stole that day & that memory from his Pops.
did cost me a baloney sandwich though, the wife came home & fed us...

Tiny

It feels good to help others, I have done that with some of the neighbors. I am getting my nephews into it now, showing them how to do brakes and oil changes. Makes me feel good to answer their questions, and see the light bulb go on when they understand how something works.

03qclb5spd

that's the kind of Dad I intend to be. My "dad" was really a step parent and ended up cheating on my mom and divorcing her shortly after my little sister graduated high school. Hmm, what a coincidence. Anyways we all need some guidance when we're young, and deserve to have things like that taught to us. Fine job 04!

SRTchris

my dad was a couch potatoe too, didn't do much with me and my brother untill we were about 10-11 yrs old. i try an do as much with mine (2&6) even though i don't have the best imagination for games and play i still really try, i don't want them not having any "dad" memories like i do.

madhat

That's a good storie, Mr Storie! Really, I enjoy helping out someone else. Lucky for me, my stepdad, who raised me, was really active with me. He taught me a lot, and was a really good influence.

04, want to steal something else? I still have not gotten around to instaling my gauges....

04ctd

bring them gauges up, we will put them on, got all the tools warmed up!

it kills my girls to get their cars worked on somewhere - they are like "it's not THAT hard - its JUST a oil change" and they get irate when someone monkeys up their car

madhat

I'll give you a shout when I get back in town. I'll bring you a goodie, too. Want anything from Fl?

Forrest Nearing

Dad wasn't super mechanical growing up, but I can remember helping him mow the yard, etc.

Grandad showed me a lot of stuff regarding house building... carpentry, plumbing, etc.

cars and hotrods, I kinda had to learn on my own...

I'm only 29, but I enjoy helping out younger kids and showing them different stuff...

the other day there was a kid up at the local 4x4 shop where a lot of us local diesel heads end up congregating... he had just gotten an '01 6sp truck and I was kinda telling him how stuff works, what kind of maintanence schedule to follow, what mods will net him the best bang for his dollar, etc.

I helped him yank his silencer ring... next time I saw him he was happy as a clam and couldn't wait to do some more stuff to his truck.

in my teen years, I had an old dude that lived down the alley from me. he was an old school hot rodder (like OLD SCHOOL... right after WWII) and I always had one or few cars in the parents' driveway (bless 'em!) on jack stands in various stages of assembly, and while other neighbors were complaining to the city, he would always stop by and talk shop with me. Heck, he GAVE me a Victor Oxy/Acc torch rig that I still use to this day!!

I am the type that if I see someone on the side of the road w/ the hood up or some tools out, I stop by and ask if they've got everything they need and or if they could use a hand... that's what it's all about

03 ant a hemi

Awesome story. Good to hear people making a difference in a kids life.

Totallyrad

04 I have to disagree with you, in a good way. You didn't steal a thing, his father gave it away! I promise you from the bottom of my rusty old heart, you gave that young man more in those few hours than you will ever know. Wait.....what's that.........I think I just heard a harp start playing for you! Good job 04, tis' the season you know.

BigBlue

I can still remember the first time my dad made me get underneath my mom's 93 suburban and help him change the oil. That started it all. My dad was always teaching me stuff. How to build, improvise, how to methodically figure things out, hard work, etc. Those are some of my best memories and we still laugh about them to this day. HA. I remember one time he was trying to counter sink a hole in a board and he told me to hold the board and not to worry cause he wasn't gonna drill all the way through. Guess what? He forgot to stop the drill and drilled all the way through it and right into my finger. I still give him the devil about that to this day. Or when he rigged a circular saw up as a table saw with a couple of 2x6's and some wire and a 1x1. He still can't figure out why I wouldn't use that contraption.

BEARHUNTER

My dad can fix and do just about anything. Im not as good as he is but I try. He has taught me alot by not doing it all for me. Its good that you helped that young man out. i asked him one day how he knows so much. He said growing up on farms and ranches made him a mechanic, horseman, electrician, buisnessman. More kids should have the chance to do that kind of stuff instead of play video games all day.

waldersha

And more parents should encourage their kids to do stuff like that. I was/am a farm kid and it to this day amazes me how many people that I work with don't know how to do simple stuff like change oil/tires, etc. I was doing that by 6.

D2 Cat

A few years ago my wife and I went to a friends house for a pot lucak about 8-9 miles from a suburb of Kansas City. My wife made ice cream. She got the mile from a dairy about 2 miles from our house, and we live another 15 miles south of the party location. (So we're not too far from civilization!) My wife was telling someone how she make the ice cream by making a custard, and the milk.

Well, we were standing in line to get some food and in front of us was a couple of "kids" (like 13-15 yr. old). One says to the other, "Whatever you do, don't take any of that ice cream. It's made from COWS milk!

Just an example of another human left to discover the world without a parent, I guess.

Hey, I had a guy (who rented from me) who was married, one child, been to the Gulf War and did not know how to determine the wattage of a light bulb!!! No kidding.

kipper79

What part of charleston are you in? I am in summerville.