Nick, Al, Thaxter and Larry

were guys I knew as a kid. 

Nick and Al were a pair of bachelors of sorts One was a widower and the other had never married. They ran a body shop. 

Thaxter ran a mechanic shop and Larry was a barber.

As small boys we were expected  to entertain ourselves. A part of what we did was watch tradesman.

Today's insurance regulations probably prohibit what we did but back in the day we watched Nick, Al and Thaxter fix cars and occasionally we would watch Larry cut hair.

The rules were that we stayed out from under foot and cleared out when things got hectic...except at the barbershop. When the barbershop was busy we were still welcome. 

We watched Nick and Al replace fenders and repair dents and got to watch Thaxter do brake and muffler jobs and maybe do a tuneup here and there.

All of these guys were true craftsmen and were pretty proud of their skills. On a slow day tuneup Thaxter would take the time to show us what he was doing and why. By the time I was about ten I could take a glance at a set of points and knew if they were serviceable or burned. I understood how to replace a fender or take a minor dent out of a door and knew I didn't want to cut hair for a living.

Most of these guys considered letting kids watch as a part of their job so long as we played by the rules and stayed out of the way. 

Today kids don't have mentors like that and besides they expect to be entertained by outside sources. They don't seem to know how to entertain themselves and learn stuff.

On the other hand, things have gotten hectic and insurance regulations prohibit kids from learning by watching tradesmen these days.






To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY