Hot Rods Procrastination and priorities

You procrastinator!!!! Haha just kidding. Each have their own reasons for the speed they accomplish things in life.....slowly or quickly.

 

I don't like it how he tells you to lead your life, I/E put mom in a home...that's not right. But I've no issues how he wants to live his life. Everyone is different.

 

Then stop beating your meat hahahaha

 

I love my cars, trucks and old junk, but I love my family, kids and grandkids more. That is why my projects take so long to get anything done. My wife and I seldom missed a ball game, school play, track meet or any of the other stuff that came up when out kids were growing up. Now with five grandsons, 20,16,13,10 and 4, it is the same deal, to say they grow up too fast is a real understatement and we don't want to miss it. We now have three grandsons into dirt bikes and quads so about two weekends a month we live at the race tracks. I have got more time to work in some car play time since I retired 6 years ago but since there is always tomorrow I drop everything when a kid event rolls around.
The 16 year old just got his drivers license and saved his money to buy a ot bow-tie pickup, he is bugging me to help him put a sbc in it, so far he is my only gear head. The oldest goes to Ohio State and wants to get into law, that may come in handy some day The others are cool little kids that are into matchbook cars and video games but at our house the video stuff is limited, they even come to the garage and hang with me and get a little greasy sometimes.
I know too many guys that let their work and fun times take over their life and the kids and grandkids grow up and are gone before they know what hit them.

 

I would have told the guy what I tell others..."what I do is none of your business". Sometimes being a nice guy doesn't work.

 

There's a reason he's single.

 

Grand kids live next door, life is good. What would I do with a finished project?

Bob

 

Back 50 years ago when Jean and I were first married and living in Texas I met a few dirt track racers through one of her cousins and later worked in a shop that the owner and his son in law ran dirt modifieds out of.
Being around some of the racers and even helping on a car once in a while I saw too many of their kids living on beans and weenies so that the race car could have a part and race the next Friday night at the Speedway. the kids might get to have burgers and fries at the track if the car did good.
I didn't want my son to live like that and later didn't want his sister or little brother to live that way because of the car Nor did I miss ball games or activities because of the car.
That's not to say that my kids didn't grow up in the car scene and attending car events was a family deal and camp out rod runs was a family weekend. The kids had other car kids to play with and my wife had other car wives to visit with and that worked and still works for her as she isn't much into the joined at the hip girl buddy thing.
Back in the 80's my son and I spent a lot of time in the shop together. He got pretty good at finding cheap bicycles and would strip them down, sand blast the frames and when he had them all spiffed up I would paint the frame for him with what ever left over paint was in the shop and he would reassemble the bike and they didn't seem to stay around home for long as he tended to sell them and start another. Mean time while he was doing that I was working on one of my rigs.

 

This thread is a vey strange it me because cars and racing are what my family is base on going back to pre-W.W. II
My mom and dad never discouraged me from playing with ball and stick sports nor would I. They always told me "Whatever you choose to do we will support you and be there." I always viewed ball and stick sports as boring and a waste of time.
My mother and father never missed an elementary or Sunday school concert
We did every thing as a family (I am an only child). I was at my first race at three months old dirt track and in the pits!
I grew up in the grandstands of Fonda speedway, or I was helping my father handing him tools, or cleaning parts.
There were family vacations to places like Niagara Falls, but we did swapmeets to help off set the cost. There were also weekend trips to the New York State museum.
I hear people my dads age (70) talking about how they wished their children had taken an interest in cars, I always think so many of these people chased all over for little league, pee wee football then high school sports where their children were older. Yet never made an effort to get their sons or daughters interested in cars by taking them to the garage.

This is way you see multiple generations of auto racers, The Pettys, Allisons, Earnhardts, Stewart Friesen third generation dirt modified now running the NASCAR truck series, locally in N.Y. Keith Flach third generation dirt modified driver, and Bobby Hackell IV a fourth generation dirt driver.

Note next Friday 11-08-2019 will be my parents 45th wedding anniversary

 

Early 30s, live alone, no kids and i couldnt imagine saying something like that and being serious about it, (maybe a mutual ribbing about not working on our projects). My 2 closest friends both have 2 or 3 kid families and atleast 1 car project with one of them being in the garage at my house. they both go to as many of their kids' things as they can, and just seem like good dads but dont have as much free time and extra spending money because kids seem expensive! The guy with his Edsel wagon(his first project car) at my house gets discouraged about it not having the time to work on it so sometimes i'll suggest a quick task that i could show him and get done in an afternoon some weekend if he wanted, and we can plan it ahead of time, or if he wants to do a specific thing, im available when ever, and i've been doing the sheet metal work on it when i get the time. I like that they do stuff with the kids, its nice and telling someone they should be working on their car instead of going to their kids soccer game is just shitty. I do drag the wagon guy to 1 swap meet, and 2 car shows every year though

 

Working on old cars and getting them done involves a lot of drudgery and time, the excitement of new projects is fleeting. So easy to find excuses not to work on them, but is there anything more sad than seeing a guys estate that's a big disorganized mess and little accomplished. When I'm gone, I hope to leave a memory of me always working and getting things done, maybe that's the best contribution I can give to my family to inspire them to achieve their dreams through hard work and dedication.