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Posted by Clint Dixon [65.125.107.130] on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 13:01:10 :
I did not mean to hijack Greg's thread below, so I am starting this one here.
Just kind of wondering what kinds of things some of us were taught as children. The things that shaped us and contributed to our love of these trucks today.
We lived on Grandpa's farm when I was young. Mom and Dad both had full time jobs, so I was Grandpa's boy during the day. Where he went, I went. What he did, I did. What he wore, I wore (in case there is ever any wonder as to why I like engineer's caps, denim jackets, and high-top work boots).
Grandpa was born in 1901 and stayed in school through the sixth grade. He left home around the age of 16 to work in the oil fields in Texas. He later mowed road banks with a scythe and drove a WWI four-wheel-drive snowplow on the same state route during the winter. During the Great Depression, he was the head mechanic in a Chevy Garage. By the time I was born in '61, he was farming full time with 1940's equipment and was self-employed at every odd job he could do on the side. Some of these jobs included shearing sheep, sharpening discs and plows, roofing, masonry, carpentry, butchering, plumbing and drain cleaning, electrical wiring, etc. The only thing I ever heard that he had hired done was bulldozing. And that was only because the banker would not approve a loan for the equipment.
Grandpa had a unique way of teaching me to be self-sufficient. He would watch intently as I tried to do something I had never done before. This could be something I was trying to fix, or a process I was trying to learn. I would usually. I would usually accomplish my goal with mixed results. He would then show me the correct/better/easier/safer way of doing it. He would only interrupt if I was about to hurt myself or otherwise do some irrepairable damage. Some of these experiences took place over 45 years ago and I still remember his voice and direction like it was yesterday. I could still show you exactly where we were standing, crouched, or laying at the time.
Many things I have learned to do correctly, I first learned the wrong way to do them. These were not things I learned from a book. And the guy who taught me did not learn them from a book either.
Today, there are still things I have not tried to build or fix, either because of the lack of time or the lack of interest. I am no expert at anything really. But what I do know a little about, and even things that I no next to nothing about, I have a real hard time trusting an expert to take control of. I have to be there to see the process myself. I need to see and feel the worn out parts that someone had replaced from things I call my own. And I need to know why they were replaced and not repaired or rebuilt. Maybe that is why I do not fly in airplanes.
I believe all of this may be part of a common thread running through many of us who have an interest in these particular old trucks.
Junior
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