Everything I Know About Cars I Learned While Drinking Or I Saw The Lightening

Before I was married I worked with a friend (RT) repairing and building portrait studio cameras. He had a friend (RA) that had a barn where they worked on cars at night. I had a knack of being able to disassemble most anything and actually put it back together (without having spare parts left over) so they invited me to join them. We stayed pretty busy fixing cars and trucks for family, friends and friends of friends. We did everything from replace windows to rebuild transmissions. I really didn’t know much about cars to start with but I learned quickly. We worked together for about three years and made about $300. Not really a big profit but I learned a ton that has saved me thousands since. The most important thing was RA’s dad owned a little country store. Most nights we would take a road trip to the store and pick up a few beers, link sausage, hoop cheese, and crackers. We worked hard but we partied pretty hard too. The building was made of tin and despite our best efforts to seal it up when the wind blew outside it blew inside too. In the winter we would sit around the wood stove and toss back a few and try to stay warm between turns on the cold concrete floor under a vehicle. During the summer we opened the huge doors and ran the fans and had fish fries. Oh, we worked some too. One summer we were working on a 54 Ford pickup truck. We were swapping the engine and transmission out with a 289 Mustang engine and 4 speed tranny. It was storming outside, with heavy rain and lightening. The truck was up on steel jack stands and I was leaning across the fender with a beer in my hand looking into the engine compartment. All the sudden we heard a loud thunderclap. Ya know how you count seconds to tell how close it is. Well there weren’t no seconds to count. Something lifted me 4 inches off the floor. The guys said I had arcs coming out of my feet. I had to sit down a bit as my muscles felt a bit weird but I was fine and only spilled a little bit. I still love a summer thunderstorm but I don’t watch them from metal buildings anymore.

Ever had your life light up??