“Always Free and Worth Every Penny”
My grandfather was an electrician for Southern Railway in south Mississippi. Apparently some tough family circumstances that he never discussed caused him to start as an apprentice before he finished high school.
…. When I asked him what he did at work he talked about wirings signals, building junction boxes and troubleshooting telephone circuits…. I did not really understand …. But I do remember he was proud of the fact that he worked with his hands…
…he had a small work shed behind his house … it had a packed dirt floor… the smell of a barn … the makeshift wooden bench bore the scars and badges of years of projects….old coffee cans and mayonnaise jars full of old bolts and screws….. the rafters and walls were decorated like a Christmas tree with fan belts, hoses and gaskets…his well worn tools were neatly hung above the bench……
….on a few occasions I worked with my grandfather around his house… I remember the respect and deference he gave his tools… they had to be used in just the right way and put up in the right place…. I was quickly corrected when I started to hammer on a screw driver….
…. the paint brushes were treated with special reverence…. Some had to be 20 years old….he showed me how to use an old comb and turpentine to get every hint of paint out of the bristles – especially up near the handle…. the brush received a tender coat of tung oil and was then carefully wrapped with old newspaper that was stacked behind the door… I came to believe that tung oil had mystical restorative properties for anything….
My dad was also a bit obsessive about his tools – hell hath no fury like a man that cannot find his tools ….
Since I bought my new old Jeep last summer I knew that installing power steering was a big step in the restoration…. I read about the complicated parts and steps on the Jeep forums ….looked at dozens of pictures….. this would be slightly beyond my hack mechanical abilities… well slightly more than slightly beyond my abilities…. I approached it with great trepidation…. but over the holidays I dove in…..
I found a used power steering assembly from an 82 CJ on Craig’s list … my middle son pitched in with patience …. I called my mechanical genius brother 20+ times…. I wore out the front door of the local Advanced Auto…. I got to know several local machine shops …..
At one point I was lamenting to my brother that it would have been much easier to have bought new parts and just paid someone else to do it…. He laughed and said “yea but just look at how much you are learning !!”
Well, we got all the parts bolted in…filled the reservoir, checked the belts…. and then turned the crank….. it works !!…… no leaks!! …. Cool !!!!
I have to say……. I am quite proud of myself… I am now holding back the temptation to take out the transmission and rebuild it….
There is no doubt that any half-qualified junior mechanic could have done it in a fraction of the time…. And probably even cheaper…
I certainly understand the importance of the Information economy and the rise of the knowledge worker…. I know about Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations…. I get comparative advantage …. It might not be efficient to grow our own tomatoes, work on our car, mow our grass, hang wall paper…..
But somehow a good power point deck or a great email does not give the same sense of accomplishment…..
Working with the hands – in the garage or garden or kitchen – or even playing an instrument- seems to fulfill some basic primal need for working with our hands… creating something, seeing physical progress…..taking on something slightly beyond our normal capabilities challenges us …. It seems to serve a human need to explore, test limits and learn….. something that a really good power point chart does not quite fill….
… anybody want to help rebuild a transmission ??
Have a great weekend !
Editor
Interesting unrelated facts:
- The 13th day of the month is most often a Friday than any other day of the week. Over the 400 year Gregorian calendar cycle the 13th day of the month occurs 688 times on Fridays. Sunday and Wednesday 687 times, Monday and Tuesday – 685; Thursday and Saturday- 684.
- Blasphemy – the first McDonald’s to not have golden arches has Turquoise arches
- Heathrow airport was named after the small hamlet that became the site of the world’s third largest airfield.
