Take A Look At This

Driving down a street today, I passed a house with the garage door open. Inside was the garage were the bare parts that would one day be a car, when, if ever, it was eventually assembled. Next to the metal skeleton was a gent, mature in years. 

I glanced quickly, and suddenly the sight of him sent a wash of memories over me, taking me back to childhood. He stood there, staring at the engine, one knee propped up on a wheel. How many times I had seen this sight. Ours was a family of mechanics and racing enthusiasts. My paternal grandfather built and raced many vehicles including cars, dune buggies, motorcycles and boats. My father could build and fix anything and was a driver for my grandfather in the Baja 1000, a multi-vehicle race in Baja California. He also ran and worked on the generator trucks that supplied all the electrical power at movie locations. My maternal grandfather was a mechanic by trade. 

The image conjured memories of early times. Weekends in the desert where men would stand around and ogle an engine as if they were watching the Super Bowl with their favorite team is playing. The hours they would spend, just tinkering. Weekends at the docks down in San Pedro harbor, where my dad had a 36 foot, duel engine, cabin cruiser that received the bulk of his attention.

I realized that it had been eons since I had seen a guy just standing, looking at a car engine. That once common scene is harder to come by these days.

Comments

  1. Debra She Who SeeksJune 7, 2021 at 6:17 AM

    I think today you need a degree in computer science to understand automobiles!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marie SmithJune 7, 2021 at 6:50 AM

    Oh the memories of childhood which can be triggered by the simplest of things. It is one of the benefits of aging though it depends on the memory of course.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LindaJune 7, 2021 at 8:56 AM

      The older I get the more intricate and profoundly stirring they become.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousJune 7, 2021 at 10:27 AM

    It is so cool that you grew up around people who knew how to work on car engines. I sometimes think about how weird is to not knowing a single thing about the car that we are zooming by at 65mph in. I can't even change a tire (well, at least I've never had to try!).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Margaret (Peggy or Peg too)June 7, 2021 at 12:56 PM

    This was my EX. A car guy. That stance you desribe is exactly how I can picture him! Boy did that bring me some memories. I loved that he even liked detailing my car. It was a nice perk but that and baseball was all he could do well. So there was that.

    Now, Rick's kryptonite is cars and plumbing. He can only drive them well and park them. That is his level of skill with cars. Oh well. But it's sad to think that no one does anything themselves anymore. Now to work on cars you need to know computers as well. There are a lot of computers in cars I am told from my mechanic. I will assume he is telling me the truth. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. BillJune 8, 2021 at 10:31 AM

    What a wonderful memory to have. I was never in to cars but appreciated the people who could look at something, determine the problem and fix it. Now you need a computer to hook up the car to even determine what the problem is.

    ReplyDelete

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