I had a fellow worked for me for a long time. I guess 12 or 14 years.

He could fix anything. He came from a family of mechanics.

Let me rephrase that sentence above. The could get about anything running again. He never did it in a conventional way.

One day he was out away from anything. Five miles to a phone and a lot further to anyone that could help him, when a tire went flat on his pickup. It was a slow leak he’d been neglecting.

He made an air up device with a spark plug that he broke the end off of, a siphon hose (he alway kept a siphon hose handy) and a bic pen. He hooked that all together and screwed the broken spark plug into where he pulled a good one out of, then cranked up his old pickup and let the compression shoot air thru the bic pen tube part. Few minutes later and he was on the road. Of course that was the technic any old farmer used in the 50’s. They all kept an apparatus that was made for airing up tires behind or under the seat of his pickup seat.

I was impressed with his ingenuity on that one.

One day I walked past the brand new Ford One Ton Mechanics Truck I had just bought for him. I did a double take because he had cut a chuck of his bumper out. It was a piece of metal about a 1′ x 1′.

He was out on a job site and needed a piece of plate so he cut one out of his truck bumper.

I was not impressed with his ingenuity on that one.

I’m not sure he ever really fixed it right.