At 11:34 PM 9/12/2004 +1200, Pete Bronlund wrote:
>This arvo i twisted off a 3/8 short extension. Just loaded up on a
>really tight sucker of a bolt and BAM the extension let go!!!! Maybe i'm
>getting too fat and putting my body weight onto the drive bar didn't
>help, but it's kinda sad really. This is part of my tools set that has
>been with me since my trainee days when i bought it all back in the late
>70s (when i 1st started work). I look back at how far that piece of
>steel and me have traveled since then. Silly really but it even has may
>name engraved on it in a young kids hand writting too as i did to my
>tools back those years.
>
>Wow... how stupid, some ageing git talking about a piece of socket set.
>
>(Weird but you have to admit you can get attached to something after
>it's gone...)
Pete,
I don't think it's weird or stupid. I feel the same way about many of my
tools. In fact when a new youngster comes over to learn something about
cars and I grap my 3/8" drive socket set, I always tell them the story about
it. I was about 17 and had a part time job after school and making about
$1.15 per hr. We had an auto parts store down the street from where we
lived. In their display case was an Industro 3/8" drive socket set with
a metal case. The price was $19.95. I saved for over 1 mo. to get the
money for that socket set. I still have it today. I think I may have lost
1 socket from the set in the last 30 yrs. I admitt that I don't like the
ratchet as much as the newer Craftsman as the ratchet doesn't have the
release button on the top, and the sockets are very hard to get off when
your hands are covered in grease. But almost every time I start to work
on something, I go grap that socket set!!! It has been my main tool of
choice for 30+ yrs.
Then there's my Craftsman 1/2" drive socket set that my parents bought
me for my 21st birthday. Still got all of that too, now pushing age 57.
Luckily my dad is still living (he's 80 now and still going strong). I
only live about 15 miles from him and usually talk several times a week
and see him several times a month. But many of my tools were given to
me by him. So every time I pick one of them up, I can't help but think
of him, all he's done for me, and smile.
John
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair1948@cox.net
Va. Beach, Va (eBay id: zebra48-1)
Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1109)
75 Bricklin SV1 (#0887) 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
65 Rambler Classic
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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