It’s on tv here in re-runs, and I’ve been watching the first season. It’s about a big city lawyer who moves to the country to be a farmer. There’s an engine repair aspect in a recent episode. Oliver (the lawyer turned farmer) has to drive an old truck to the state capitol to sell his big load of apples. Along the way the engine blows the head gasket. He (somehow) pulls the head gasket out of the engine and shows it to his wife, who knows nothing about this subject. They can’t find another head gasket that fits, so to help her hubby get the apples to market she bakes a pancake in the shape of a head gasket and they use that … lol …
For this story to work its comic element, most folks in 1965 must have known what head gasket looks like. I got to wondering, what % of the current-era American population would know what a head gasket looks like?
Most folks have no idea what goes on inside a car. I have heard rants about a gasket costing $20 but labor $1,500 and they do not understand what it takes to get to the gasket. I have heard people wonder if a fuse would cause an O2 sensor code. Someone commented they found they were 2 quarts oil low and would take the car to their shop in a few weeks to add oil.
I am amazed that more cars are not found broken down on the side of the road.
Yeah she was not really prepared for any domestic work and he always wore a suit on the farm. Ties can be dangerous around farm equipment. When my wife was gone though and I had to cook for me and the kid, I tried pancakes and I’m sure they would have worked as a head gasket. They were not edible even though the kid was willing to try-I threw them out.
Yeah I don’t know. As kids we were always into mechanical things. Even in the city. I do believe though high schools need to do more to expose kids to mechanics and I think it is a shame that guys were not required to take Home Ec where we could learn to sew and cook. I still can’t hardly sew a button on and sure can’t shorten my pants. I can weld though. So yeah, Home Ec, Shop, General Business, Law, etc. is as important as English, Math, and Biology-not to mention Phy Ed.
A tiny percentage have probably heard of a head gasket. A much smaller percentage would have a clue as to what it looks like or what it does.
My wife passed away about 6 months ago and talking to her about anything related to the automotive world would drive me stark raving nuts. It’s a miracle she didn’t do me in first.
Three true stories aboutmy wife and mechanical things.
When our first child was young I came home and found my wife in tears, the baby was on he lap and my wife was trying to clip her nails by squeezing the clippers with her fingers, She had not lifted the lever and turned it around,
We bought our first new vehicle in 1971 A VW bus. The only option was a radio. On the way home from ordering it, my wife said “OH NO, we shouldn’t have ordered the radio from the dealer! I don’t like German music.”
My wife is directionally challenged. I have to write her very specific instructions to get anyplace. She can’t read a road map because dhe is colorblind, all the roads are gray. She was taking our children to Toronto for a competition. After she read the directions, she asked me for directions to get home. I told her to just go bact the way she came. She did. When I saw her she told me this story about all the crazy Canadian driver coming at her going the wrong way on the Queen Elizabeth Highway. Sge came back on the same side of the road she went up on.
When my wife and I got married in 1976, I had a 1975 Olds 98 regency. One day as she was coming home from work, the car was making a terrible racket, it sounded like a machine gun. I started yelling at her, why did she drive home like that instead of calling me? She said like what? I said didn’t you hear the noise? She tells me she didn’t hear anything. I yelled some more. I start walking to the driver’s door to reach in and pop the hood when I saw something that told me what I was going to see. There was a dent in the hood that looked like it had been made from the inside. Sure enough, I lift the hood and there’s no plug in the third cylinder back from the front. Now this was a 455 cid v8 so you can imagine the noise it was making, let alone the noise it made when it blew out. I had changed the plugs the week before and had obviously been distracted when tightening that one. Things have not changed much in 43 years, but I yell a lot less, plugs last a lot longer, and I miss big V8’s.
I don’t know how to do multiple responses yet. But @oldtimer-11 me thinks you jest a little.
@old_mopar_guy In college I was changing plugs for the first time on my 59 Pontiac. I rented a room from a lady and had to work in the street. At any rate I got them all in except the one behind the generator bracket. Got it out but no way could I get it back in again. So I drove the car three blocks up to the gas station where the mechanic I knew put the last plug in for me. Yes it was loud, very loud. Worse than a cycle with no pipes. After that I devised a piece of tubing with a stiff wire that I could guide the plug in with to get it started then pull the tubing off. Think new cars are hard to work on?
I developed early on though the philosophy that anything put together can come apart. Just a matter of studying how they put it together. Of course then they started using rivets and actually molding things together. Still comes apart but no way it’s going back together again.
???
Why not. You just need a pair of scissors.
I would think the buttons to be a problem as I frequently need a blood transfusion after sewing on a button.
Of course it was ridiculous. All situation comedies are.
Arnold was my introduction to how smart pigs are. Growing up near the big city, I had few ways of learning that. The show’s staff portrayed him in a good light, too, of course.
Just as I find myself convinced that television programming is on the decline @George_San_Jose1 reminds me of GREEN ACRES and I realize much of what’s always been on TV was not so good and current programs are struggling to keep up the tradition. Soupy Sales and Ted Mack defined the Golden Age of television I guess.
