Sunday, October 18, 2009

Much better night at the Chevron

firstcar

…. Kid pulls up in a little old Ford Escort and comes in to prepay $5 in gas for it.  He goes out, fills up the car and gets in the driver’s seat.  Three kids get out and start pushing the car – getting it going fast enough to compression start it.  As I’m watching this whole thing unfold, I just laugh to myself.

…. My junior year of high school the starter motor went out on my ‘74 Dodge Colt.  Being broke, this would have been a tragedy if it weren’t for 3 things. 1. The car was a clutch.  2. The house I lived in was on a hill. 3. East High School is right on the Wasatch Fault, which means it’s on a really steep hill. I went 3 months before I put in a new starter motor.  I just never turned off the car unless it was parked on a hill or full of friends, and I always made sure there was room for them to push it (that was the price they paid for a ride).  Actually I probably wouldn’t have ever put in a starter motor if I hadn’t got a job at Arby’s, which wasn’t on a hill and nobody wanted to come push start me at 1 in the morning.

…. And here’s proof that I’m not the only one that thinks talking on the phone while checking out at the store is rude:

taser

sartin

1 comment:

A Paperback Writer said...

Yeah, I saw that cartoon and liked it, too.
And I hear you on the car story. I owned that '66 Beetle for years. I can't tell you how many times I had to pop the clutch to start that thing. And the first winter after I was married, I drove it without brakes for 3 months. I'd just downshift into second, then put the emergency brake on and off until the car jerked to a start. Yes, I could've asked my folks for the money to repair the brakes, but that would've been tantamount to admitting they were right that I was too young to get married and support myself (of course they were right, but I was 21 and knew everything....)