I used to have a stack of those old Popular Mechanix mags with the "Say Smokey" column in every issue.
I had NO IDEA you were a real motorhead.
Of course my knowledge is all from the era before computers, and to be honest, my wife is actually the better wrench in the family.
I'm more the geek, I know the facts and figures, the theory... but without my wife I'd be accidentally leaving parts out.
She can still do it even with her MS and the wheelchair, all she needs is for me to pick her up and put her on the crawler.
My latest wrenching has involved getting my kids racing. Straight-up, there's not many better bonding projects for a father and his teenage son, then building a car and getting it ready for the track. You'll watch the boy grow in patience and maturity, and if you know your stuff he'll develop great respect for you in the process. In mechanics & racing, money talks and bull**** walks. And by 'money', I don't mean cash but rather legit knowledge & skills.
In addition, organized sanctioned racing requires a great amount of research and subsequent application to your car and yourself. You work and plan for an event for months, if not years. You pick your class, and prep your car. But when you show-up on race day, if you don't pass tech - you don't race. It's that simple. There's no "the dog ate my homework". You turn around, and go home. Same thing with yourself on the track (road-racing). You obey the rules and obey the flags, or you're off the track - immediately. And again, you go home. And if you didn't do a good job mechanically prepping your car, you DNF. Don't adequately rest and physically prepare yourself the night before? You perform badly, go off the course, spin, or worse. No one likes to talk about 'worse'.
It's a total no bull****, no second chance, environment. And it breeds maturity & competence. It's a perfect activity for a teenage boy to grow into a responsible mature man. I saw my boy leap ahead of a lot of his schoolboy friends in terms of maturity, competency, and self confidence. Much due to his racing, but also a lot due to him being a kid and rubbing elbows with middle-aged racers who shared mature advice with him. Contrary to image, racers are among the most mature and safety-conscious guys you'll meet. Their lives depend upon it.
And one more thing: You'll never see a kid that respects his car, like a kid that spent a couple years and thousands of hours (and dollars!) building it. When you work that hard to build something, you don't recklessly ruin or wreck it. Reckless ruins are for the kids whose old man buys them a Porsche or Muscle Car on their 16th, without the kid working for it.
Anyway, didn't mean to make this that long. It's a passionate subject for me. Thanks for the comment!
