Hypothetical Serious Question

[1motime]

I am Scottish so I can't give anything away that I could sell for a few dollars.

I was born with the same affliction. Balanced somewhat with the Irish half. Creates a conflict at times

 

[49autocycledeluxe]

ask a Scottsman if he has any spare change and he will reply "Spare change? I'm Scottish, there's no such thing as spare change"

 

[dirtman]

I dated a 28 yr old who never learned to ride a bike, never had any interest in getting her license & I was the same; could drive a car by 6, was able to control a 750cc motorcycle by like 8 with my dad balancing it & by 10 could throw a 3 speed on the column through the gears down the road. 1st bike was a mtn bike that I had to lean on a hill to get on or running jump mount it. We got put outside & told to either stay within eye sight or we better be within hearing distance when they hollered. As far as the guy, the hateful woman, & the suing That is the kinda Sorry pieces of crap we're allowing to push us around. Without getting political but sadly we have to be sensitive to their needs despite stupidity & lack of morals/upbringing. I know I am a different generation but I am embarrassed by some of the early 90s kids & don't even get me started with the 2000 gens. I was raised different but I became unfiltered & have no apologies for it.

I grew up around heavy trucks, my pop had me behind the wheel on his lap on many trips when I was small, as soon as I could reach the pedals I learned to drive. A buddy of mine grew up on a farm, they had several old tractor trailers they used for deliveries with farm plates and a few that were retired and put out to pasture. My buddies dad would let us run the old cars and trucks in the woods, and in that area, no one bothered you if you were on the road with them.
I was about 12 or so the first time I passed my dad while he was at work driving a truck, in one of those farm trucks, all he did was grin and keep going. These days they'd lock everyone up and throw away the key. Kids don't want to drive, they don't learn to ride bikes and they don't care.
I lived with a woman for a while who was 22 years younger than myself, she drove a car but barely. Forget driving a stick, and there was no way I'd let her near any of my cars. She would wreck two or three a year, if she didn't wreck them she'd run them out of oil or forget the put it in park and let it roll down the hill into the lake. (Yeah, that happened twice).
I finally moved but didn't tell her where to.

The first time I took off in pops car I was maybe 8 or 10, he had been letting me drive in parking lots and around the neighborhood, and my uncle would let me drive all the time when I was at his place. It didn't take my pop long to realize the car was gaining mileage even though he was out on the road with the truck. He started marking the tires and writing down the mileage, I started disconnecting the speedo cable and re-marking the tires.
I was 10 when a buddy down the street who had just turned 16 had is dad buy him a Corvette for his first car, I asked what I was getting when I got my license, my dad pointed to the old Ford out back in the woods, he tossed me the keys and said "It's yours, if you start working on it now, maybe it'll be ready by the time your old enough to drive". The next day after school I went to a buddies father's junk yard and got four new tires, and me and a buddy tore the engine apart and got it running within that first week. I replaced the brake shoes, fixed a few broken lights and went driving. The day I passed my dad coming home from work in it was the day I got the speech telling me that if I get caught, I better not call for home for help.
I never got caught. My father really didn't care if I was out driving around, I suppose he did he same as a kid.

I was 14 the first time I got paid to drive a truck, my pop's boss sort of figured I was old enough to drive after seeing me drive in and out of there so many times he had me make a few deliveries on the weekends in the company trucks, he didn't realize I was too young to have a license until he realized I had taken one of the company trucks to take my driving test, about 3 years after I started driving for him on weekends. He started to ask me about it once but thought better of it and just walked away probably not wanting to know for sure.

 

[Muleman121]

I gave away a 79 Palo Alto and a mid 40’s Hawthorne to the same grandchild. He’s a Marine now and still has both bikes. I gave 3 bikes to another grandchild. Bought 3 bikes for a 3rd over the years. Gave a couple of child’s bikes to a family I didn’t know. All totaled; about 12 or so given away over the last 11 years.

 

[1motime]

These things are generational I guess. My father's father died very early. The Depression and no breadwinner. I think lots of people were walking or riding bikes.
Then he did what most young guys did. Joined up in 1941. Nose gunners are not taught to be pilots. My Mom taught him how to drive after the war. She taught me also and did a good job. My Dad did not have that type of patience anyway.

 

[Superman1984]

My dad always let me drive on his lap, by 6-8 yrs old I was learning to drive 3 speeds on the column / "3 on the tree" which pops said "if you can drive & shift this, then you can damn near drive anything else you want" I used to terrorize the dirt road in front of my house dumping clutches, slingin' rocks, and cow pastures in a pinto 4 speed. Was on 750cc motorcycles while he balanced & supposed to stay in no more than 3rd gear pops never noticed until the speedo was reading 55-65 on some winding road in the country. He taught me you can drive a vehicle with a pair of vice grips attached to the steering column if you have to & I have once in a hurry to buy an S10 truck (the guy decided last minute the billet steering wheel was extra) & I have drove stuff sitting on a plastic milk crate for a seat. Seat belt on of course. Hahaha. Dad also said "If you go to jail then don't waste your 1 phone call on me" but I never had to call him from jail until my 30s. I wasn't asking to be bailed out but just informing him where I was so he didn't worry if he didn't hear from me. Seems a lot of us have grown up different than these newer generations. I was taught to learn anything you can 'cause you'll never know when you may need it & that set me on a tinkering path with anything & everything basically. If I can't fix it; I am sure it won't be fixable in the end hahaha

 

[dirtman]

I was always a big kid, so riding on pop's lap went out the window at about 3 or 4. I didn't have to worry too much about getting in trouble most of the time because I had so many relatives that were in law enforcement in about 5 local states.
Funny you mention the milk crate, I once bought a '59 Dodge panel truck for $200 with no seats, it was at an auction in MD. Not wanting to make a second trip to come back and get it, I decided to drive it home. I went the first 10 miles or so kneeling on one knee and working the pedals with the other before I spotted a service station with a stack of metal milk crates. Two crates and I had a seat. I was just thinking about that yesterday as I was working on a trailer outback. I had taken one of those milk crates and welded four shopping cart front wheels to it to make a roller cart, I use it till this day as a roller seat around the garage. The tires wore out on the old cart wheels long ago, but I cut slices of 4" steel bar an made forever wheels for it about 30 years ago.

I wish I still had that truck now, it would come in handy these days, but I'm sure the lack of A/C would leave it sitting in the yard most of the time these days.

 

[Superman1984]

I was always a big kid, so riding on pop's lap went out the window at about 3 or 4. I didn't have to worry too much about getting in trouble most of the time because I had so many relatives that were in law enforcement in about 5 local states.
Funny you mention the milk crate, I once bought a '59 Dodge panel truck for $200 with no seats, it was at an auction in MD. Not wanting to make a second trip to come back and get it, I decided to drive it home. I went the first 10 miles or so kneeling on one knee and working the pedals with the other before I spotted a service station with a stack of metal milk crates. Two crates and I had a seat. I was just thinking about that yesterday as I was working on a trailer outback. I had taken one of those milk crates and welded four shopping cart front wheels to it to make a roller cart, I use it till this day as a roller seat around the garage. The tires wore out on the old cart wheels long ago, but I cut slices of 4" steel bar an made forever wheels for it about 30 years ago.

I wish I still had that truck now, it would come in handy these days, but I'm sure the lack of A/C would leave it sitting in the yard most of the time these days.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention ! Yeah I wish kept a lot of things over the years but life sometimes forces your hand or at the time it's too good of an offer to pass up when the $ talks