So yesterday I come home to find my daughter yelling at me not to park in the carport 'cause it's wet.' After she goes to bed, I remember I need something in the carport and go out to find my heavy duty, long throw jack has become part of an art project of hers where the cup has been filled with water, etc... I'm pissed... Mostly at the wife for not 'supervising' her when she's outside... (Not that that's even possible) And scared because that jack could have easily lopped off a couple fingers if she got too creative with it.... So, I go to bed and forget about it till the morning... So I go in and explain to my daughter about 'Papa's tools' and the danger of playing with them... And say: "You know, I found my big jack full of water last night, right?" She says: "Ok, papa..." and starts to go back to what she's doing... Then her head snaps back up and her eyes get big and she says with fear: "Did the FLATHEAD get WET???" (The flatty is covered and out of the way so it couldn't have gotten wet and she was playing a good distance from it anyway...) So after I stopped laughing, I told her it didn't and she said "Phew!!" and went on playing. She's already a flathead nut at age 6...
Nice.........I am about 1 year away from those things to start happening............lil dude is already hiding the phone and TV remote, cant wait until he is walking and venturing into the shop.
My son is 22 months old......and my wife recently bought a '66 Impala. We taught him to say "Chevy Impala".....now yesterday, an Impala catalog shows up in the mail with a totally different bodystyle on it, yet he saw the emblem and said, yep, you guessed it, "Mommas Shivie Impala"..... Also, if ya point out a truck and say it's a Ford or Chevy, he'll check the emblem to see if it is and correct ya if ya try to trick him..... Too smart for his own good......or me....hahaha! And god forbid if I start up the hotrod or my SS "Shivie" truck to go somewhere (or just move it) and not take him with me.....he loves it....
Yeah.. They're fun when they can participate... She's been spotting "Flathead Motors" since she was 3... But I had her telling me how many carbs were on all the flattys at the Roundup... I got another one coming in Sept so I'm going to have a pit crew soon...
Ya gotta love em! I remember when my 21 year old was about 4 and he said he wanted to drive the car. I explained to him that you have to have a drivers license to drive a car and left it at that. Well, a couple days later I'm at the bank and my drivers license is gone. I couldn't figure out where it when and it like to drove my crazy. Then, a couple days later the wife is cleaning the boys room and she finds my driver's license under his bed. The little shit figured that if you needed a dl to drive the car, he would just use mine. Thank God for the locking column and other safety stuff or who knows where he would have ended up. It all turned out OK! Thank goodness.
Recently, I got my roadster running again, and had given the World's Most Beautiful Granddaughter (age 4 next month) a ride. Needless to say, she was stoked. As is customary after reassembly, a few details needed tinkering with, and she was more than interested in what I was doing. My favorite wife came out and asked her whether she wanted to help feed the cats, usually a pretty big deal. She looked her straight in the eye and said "No thank you, I want to stay here in the garage with Grandpa." To say that I was pleased was sort of an understatement.....
I've had my son Ian in the garage since he could walk. Here's a picture of him helping me install plugs in my wife's 235. (And yes, I actually let him do it with some help). Even last night when I was disassembling suspensionon my '59 Pontiac he had to carry around the work light and shine it under the fender for me. He always loves working on or going for a ride in the "pink car."
My two and four year old love to be out in the garage with me ( even though they are both girls, gross I know) and love playing with hand tools. One day the four year old even did a little body work on my wifes Ford with a rubber mallet. How stoked was I?
My newly minted 3yr old has been working more and more with me in the garage...Since my wife brought home the Caddy every night after dinner he wants to come help. Most of the time he mans the worklight or picks up stuff I drop...after a few minutes he goes to town on his "car"...and is trying for figure out how to build his pedal car....
I'm 21 and even though I don't want to think about having a kid- I'm really excited to have a little shop buddy.
20 years ago I was hurring to get the glass 29 on the road. I wired the tail lights up and that was it. I had son hit the brakes. No lights I threw a fit from other family stress and he kept saying dad, dad. I say WHAT ?? he says fiberglas.....Ground !!! Ground !! I felt like the child then.
At work and reading all of this.. good times. I have an 11 yr old step son,4 yr old boy and a 2 yr old split tail. I have tried with the boys raising them in the garage with no luck..there interests are somewhere else.. The 2 yr old (Marissa) is always out in the garage and has here own fisher price set up in my garage.. Her lil space. She has no problems helpin pops out in the garage.. She has had interest in the hot rods and my ol shovelheads.. In this day and age I am proud to have a daughter to take so much interest in mechanical stuff....Her husband can clean house while she builds a hot rod.. haha..
It's been posted before, but here's my daughter at 3yo turning a wrench on the flathead, and at 6 after the car was done. Lots of gray hair to come for old dad. Flatman
These have need here before Here is our son when he was 6, whisling away while running tools from bay to bay Here he is at 9 making the lowering blocks for my pontiac And now he is 10 and would rather go to the shooting range than spend time in the garage, oh well its still time spent together (but my projects are not getting done) s.
Hey....were you the guy at the Roundup asking his little girl why it's called a HEMI when you were next to this car? We got a kick out of it! You're teaching her well.
I think so... I asked her and she remembers the car but she thinks it has a flathead... I think I was trying to explain Hemis to her but she wasn't listening... She's stoked on engines right now so I'm running with it...
The Jalopy Journal
