Folks Of Interest Remember that one kid that wanted to be a car guy?

I was looking at some old pictures of the kids in my tech school Auto Mechanics class from 1967-69 the other day. There was this one goofy kid that we all wondered how he got in the mechanics class as he was the typical nerd, pocket protector , buzz hair cut and all. He wanted to be a car guy but just wasn't, you know the type. He was a mommy's boy sissy, couldn't stand to get his hands or clothes dirty. He told on us regular guys every day for something so as a result he got every trick in the book played on him. When he was a really good boy mommy let him drive her 59 6 cyl Biscayne to school. I had the great idea one of those days to replace his coil wire with a piece of vac hose but put his real coil wire right on the air cleaner so he would see it. We all hung around after school to watch him when it wouldn't start. He got out, opened the hood, looked at it for a second and slammed the hood down and went back in to call mommy for a ride home. The next morning I went a little early and put the coil wire back on. Sure enough his mom brought him to school and jumped our teachers ass about some one messing with baby boy's car. I said maybe he had just flooded it or something, why not go out and try it today. The whole class went to the parking lot, knowing what I had done, and low and behold it started right up! His mom was so pissed he didn't get to drive to school for a month. Did I feel bad? Hell no, he had got my ass in trouble so many times he had to know payback was coming. Every time I think about that dickhead I wonder what he ended up doing in life. He is probably a retired CEO living in Florida and still wanting to be a car guy!

 

I think we call those guys Gold Chainers.

 

Yea, that's what they turned out to be, back in the day we just called them nerds and dickheads. I am soooooo ashamed of my self

 

It seems as half of them have joined the HAMB,

 

I bet that guy became a financial wizard and can buy any car he wants.

 

He is now the guy charging you $125 an hour to fix your stupid computer!

 

Had lots of kids like this come through the shops I worked at.
No get up and go, no enthusiasm of any kind to do anything
Would look at them and tell them “ why don’t you go sell shoes or bubble gum or something? This trade is not for you”

I spent probably the first year in a shop just cleaning things, holding lights for the mechanics, moving stuff around etc etc all the “ grunt work”

Kids today seem to think they are going to start in the shop and on there 2nd day be building “ race cars”

“ hey stupid this is a Toyota dealer, suck it up and replace that pollen filter on moms corrola “

It’s funny as tradesmen or pretty much anybody who wants to work with there hands is commanding more and more money as no one is doing it anymore.

And more and more white collar university grads are out of work or working in fields that have nothing to do with what they studied.
And are burdened with huge debit.

Been doing this since I was 17 full time straight outta high school and I have never been with out a job, ever.

 

Has bought any car he wanted...

 

I forgot to go to my 50th high school reunion, and I still live in town, wonder if I missed anything?

Bob

 

Nah. The prettiest girl is now grossly overweight and ugly, the nerds are still nerds and the bull shit artists are probably slinging it better than ever.

 

I wonder if he had a couple of guys take him under their wing if he could had developed more as a car guy. Perhaps he wouldn't have informed on the guys that ridiculed him. I've seen thathappen plenty of times in 38 years of teaching.

 

I would say YOU got your ass in trouble....for whatever violations of the rules YOU chose to ignore.

And, then and now, people who act like you describe yourself are called bullies. Never really popular....people may laugh at a bully's antics....may even fear 'crossing' them....but they do not respect them.

A far more thoughtful...and useful...approach......

 

Your students should be known as "Fortunate ones", you sound like one of the very few memorable teachers I had in high school. You are absolutely correct about taking the other path and having him join along instead of picking on him. And with his book smarts he may well have taught the hard core car guys a thing or two along the way. Hands on wrenching has it's place as does math applied to mechanical efforts, it is useful in figuring compression, choosing a cam, the right gearing and more.

 

I was the one who wanted to be a car guy and now I are one....

 

I tied a big chunk of concrete with wire under this one dickheads car. It was tied to the frame where it would bang on the floor board but just out of sight if you just casually looked under the car.
He came in all pissed the next day saying he paid to have his car put on a lift and all they found was this big rock. I guess the shop was laughing at this as much as we did.

 

Are you telling this story because you think it is funny or amusing or trying to justify how your life as an adult turned out?

 

Good natured pranks are one thing but consistent harassment is indeed bullying. Those guys never really got off the ground in my classes. Now I quite enjoyed the BSer's who were usually quite funny and creative.

 

I'm betting this didn't turn out as expected.

 

He probably still loves cars turned out to be good with money now has a bunch of knuckle Busters working for him and some badass hot rod shop. I never have met too many mechanics good with money never enough to own their own shop but they got the tool box big enough to live in and every tool you can think of.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Sorry my man, but I was never one to look down on those kids that just never seemed to fit in. I probably fit that stereotype too well myself.

 

Bill Gates?

 

Not so much fitting in and being bullied, but some people just don’t have, for lack of a better word the “ natural ability” to pick up a trade.
My uncle Joe is a master at EVERYTHING. electrician, plumber, framing , tile etc etc anything to do with a building he can make happen.
My cousin david? ( joes son) Partner in a law firm smartest guy I know.... give him a hammer and nail and he will start to cry! Just no clue ! And he grew up around it and with me and the rest of the family heck even his sister can turn a wrench.
That was what my comment was about, not bullying someone who does not know, but some folks just don’t have it
Could I have gone to school and become a dentist or lawyer ?!? Probably not because sitting behind a desk in school was just and inch above death for me.
I like learning new things but at my leisure and what I want to learn, so me and school never got along.

Algebra? Calculus? Those are bad words in my book !!
But not everyone’s !

 

I was 4'-11" from about 8th grade until I was a senior in high school, so bullying was always around my corner. I didn't quite fit in. I was driving my 1931 Dodge coupe and the other guys were driving GTOs and such. I DID fit in with my girlfriend, though....she had a 1931 Plymouth PA rumble seat coupe. Here is my '31 DB as I drove it in brushed on, primer red Rustoleum....

 

We all did stupid stuff in high school, most of the time we were trying to impress a girl or some buddies who were just as stupid. I don't know if it was stupid or just a lack of common sense. What I do know is that to hang onto something like that for over 50 years and still think its funny, IS stupid.
Let's get back to cars

 

I was that guy. The only "college prep" guy in a newly opened auto shop my senior year. Didn't rat people out. More like I wanted to be part of them but didn't fit as a new guy at that school and from the "college prep " crowd. They did come to me for help with written stuff.

Between high school and community college I am starting my 44th year of teaching and I think my back ground of not totally fitting with either group has helped me to deal with spread of students from assholes to nerds. They all need a fair shot. I've had students come in all gung- ho, read every magazine available, soak all you can give them, can't kick'em out of the shop, who decide at the end of two years that it isn't for them. Others come in and it is all you can do to get them into their coveralls and later you find out that they went to Lincoln Tech, etc. and they're in a shop, happy as a clam, making a good living.

Bullying was an up and down problem that seemed to consume too much time. Although one time karma stepped in. The last year I taught HS there was a senior who just wouldn't leave this smaller sophomore alone. I was across the shop when the senior pushed the sophomore down over a battery charger. I'm coming across the shop thinking, "Oh crap." Little kid gets up and throws three of the quickest, prettiest rights you will ever see. (Being the youngest of several brothers has its advantages.) Of course to administration that was the wrong thing to do. They both got suspended.

 

......................Love it! I bet that was the last time anyone messed with the little guy.

 

Took a one year state welding course in the early 70s. All the other guys wanted to work on the Alaska pipeline after they finished the course. Hell no, not me. I wanted to learn how to weld to play with cars. Guys from 20 to 60 in the class, almost all hoodlums, Nam vets, misfits, or dirty hippies like me. The guys that got the worst of it were the guys that showed up with spats, and full leathers. They got no relief ever. None. Their machines got turned off when they were doing a test weld. Their cars got fucked with. Their shit got stolen. Hell, their lunch was never safe. Some of them actually stuck it out.
I'd like to think their lives were full of hot women, big money, and great success.
But I'd bet they became Steve Buschemi from that Adam Sandler movier, complete with the lipstick.

 

You guys must be a hoot at parties with you uptight ways. We never done anything to hurt this guy and I think he enjoyed the attention. All the guys in the shop would help him get a job out when he screwed it up. I was just pointing out that not every one is cut out to be working on mechanical things. We were kids having fun, not some kind of stupid maniacs like you seem to be calling me. I am sorry if I hurt any ones sensitive feelings. I have forgotten how the new H.A.M.B. is so critical of a joke that is 50years old. Pardon me for offending some of you.

 

Well said!

 

Pulling pranks on fellow students was part of growing up! Apparently I never grew up. I spent 33 years with a Fire Dept and if you think is was bad in high school.... When you’ve got 100, supposedly, grown men with a lot of time on their hands, it makes for an interesting day at work. We have six stations and most of the time the guys knew I was coming! So....

Can’t even start to describe the crap that went on, some I got..... some I gave!

Wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Alway pitied those poor bastards chained to a machine in the bowels of some factory.


Bones