I think that there is an appropriate age to stop using tools and I think I have reached that age. A friend who is my age was in the Lowes paint department and wanted a tray to fit the ladder so he could repaint his cathedral ceiling. The woman who runs the paint department told him that at his age he had no business being on a ladder and that he should hire the job done. He walked out empty handed and hired the job done. I was up on a ladder cleaning the eaves troughs in the front of my house. A friend from the service staff at the university where I taught was driving past my house and stopped and told me I had no business being up on the ladder.
I was looking into buying a new short block for my lawnmower because it goes through oil at a very quick rate. Instead, I bought a Black and Decker rechargeable battery powered mower. My wife invited a contractor to give a bid on doing some projects around our house that normally I would do myself. He went through the list with us and I thought about my fishing tackle out in the garage. I signed the contract and gave the down payment for the work. I don’t even do the oil changes in my car anymore. I’ve got a good independent shop and my vehicle problems are now their vehicle problems.
As a young person grows up, it is time to learn to use tools. As a person enters geezerdom, it’s time to put the tools away and pick up the fishing rod.
I try to tell my son to protect his body now. he will want to use it later
Well I am getting to that age also, but it does vary. I scraped the eves to get ready for a new paint job, but from what I have seen there is a defining moment when one has to say I cannot do this anymore. Our dock guy called up this year and said I am retiring from docks, 85 I believe, so i thought ok I can do docks. Put in the boat dock and said ya know what, I am hiring a dock guy. They came and put in the big dock and I have found I give up things piece by piece as I get older, but willing to pay the $75 to have them in and out. So I got lazy, put in a winch for the little boats, sailboat, canoe, paddleboat and 12’ crestliner with a 7 hp engine, using the trailor and winch for the big boat yet, can I go another 10 years to 70 yes I think so.
So I now pay to have my oil change done, and much car maintenance, though when it came to trans flush I did the pump it into a bucket while filling as a total flush requires cracking the housing. So I got a total flush 1/4 the price. Sure I do air and gas filters, and looking at differential and transfer case flud changes Sure I got a chainsaw but i will let somebody else take out dead trees.
I agree that the appropriate age is often determined by how much a tool is used. A lot of country kids use firearms on their own before they become teenagers. But they have had considerable training from the time they could first hold one. After 5 or 6 years of year-round practice with mom, dad, or their siblings they are ready to appreciate how dangerous the guns are and know how to handle them.
I try to tell my son to protect his body now. he will want to use it later
I’ve harped on my kids many many many times about playing loud music with ear-phones/ear-buds. More then once I had to take them away for playing it too loud.
Now my oldest - one of her friends who was always wearing ear-buds…now has hearing aids…She’s 24.
Yeah, that loud stuff can really do damage.
Thats why this winter, when the wife came down with something and she lost her voice, I was so very helpfull. Every night after she fell asleep I’d open the windew in the bedroom and shut it first thing in the morning.
Man was it quiet around here for three weeks…until the weather got nice…damn!!!
Yosemite
I had a summer job as a kid mowing the neighbor’s lawns. The neighbors would tell me to use their own lawn-mowers for the job, but most of the time their lawn mower wouldn’t start, so I’d have to go back and get my own, which was a Sears Craftsman rotary type. The other good thing about the rotary type is that it is self propelled. It was pretty good about starting by the third pull. I think I was around 13 or 14.
The thing I most remember about that job is when I told them I had to use my own mower b/c theirs wouldn’t start. Then the dad, he’d take me out to the garage, and his darn lawnmower would start fine for him. Next time I was there though, it wouldn’t start. I think in retrospect maybe I just wasn’t strong enough to pull the cord as hard as the dad could pull. It was a frustrating thing though.
Edit: Oh, the other thing I remember about that job is I’d have to take my lawnmower several blocks sometimes to get to the neighbor’s house, so what I did was ride behind it, it was pulling me on my skateboard… the neighbors must have wondered what I was doing riding on a skateboard behind the mower down a paved street … lol …
I mowed a few lawns too, and did a few odd jobs for people. All my customers were too old to mow their own lawn, but they tipped pretty well.
I had one old lady that when I was finished one day, she poked her head out the window and asked if I’d do one more chore for her. I said yes and she asked me to pick her some pansies.
I had to have her come and show me what the heck a pansie was and I started to pick them.
The one thing that she forgot to tell me was to pick some stem too. I walked up to the door and she laughed so hard, she almost fell off the porch. I had picked the flowers, but didn’t leave a quarter inch of stem on them.
She was happy though and said that she’d just float them in a bowl of water.
Yosemite
I charged the neighbors by the season. $60 I think, for the whole summer. And I insisted it be paid in one dollar bills. It was way more fun getting a thick wad of dollar bills for my effort, compared to a check.
That’s what paid for all those car models that I got to build…and a few other things to boot.
I built so many that…most came with street tires, and a set of race tires. I had a dreser to store extra parts, and one drawer 16in deep X 30 in long X 8in high was full of just tires.
Yosemite
@GeorgeSanJose
“And I insisted it be paid in one dollar bills.”
You think just like Al Bundy
If that guy had a wad of dollar bills, he’d head straight to the . . . . . bar
LOL
My mechanical experiences started when I was about 12 years old. The Harley dealer had gotten divorced, closed the business down, and moved to Texas. The sons remained with the mother next door and the 12 year old one was a friend. He had a James Dean type 21 year old brother who was into bikes big time and showed us a few things about slapping some cycle bits together.
So what we did was learn how to put a front end on a frame along with 2 wheels, handlebars, and a seat and voila; an accident waiting to happen.
We used to take those rolling chassis over to a long steep hill by the football stadium and ride them to the bottom at a pretty high speed.
Since there were no brakes on them the method of stopping was by laying it on the side and sliding into the heavy duty chain link fence at the bottom; using the fence as a rebound cushion so to speak. Amazingly, no one ever got hurt other than a few minor scrapes and bruises.
That hill had about a 30 degree angle so the ride down was a blur and I wouldn’t even consider doing such a thing as an adult. Young and stupid…