It is very often in life that you know the exact source of extremely useful information, but I do happen to know the origin of one such useful tid bit in my life. The tale begins this morning, when I walked outside to my truck only to notice yet another flat tire. I have changed a metric ton of flat tires in the past 5 years, and every time that I do I remember the little saying that most of us use to know how to tighten or untighten bolts and screws, and I remember when and where I learned it.
When we were in late high school and then for some years after Devin and I got in the habit of going out to our old farm house with friends on weekends to howl at the moon and have lots of fun. These times were the best, we called them "wood stock weekends", I guess cause it was always a 3 day party in the country.
One Sunday after one such weekend I found myself with a flat tire on my good ole Nissan pick up. I don't need to again mention how much this truck meant to me, but I will. I had loved that truck ever since I watched it drive down the long driveway to the farm on the day dad drove it home from Beloit, KS (is that right dad? answer through mom in the comments since you never comment). The truck looked just like the one that Marty Mcfly got in back to the future, and it served me well through more adventures than I can relate, though perhaps soon I should try.
Digression aside, my tire is flat at the end of woodstock weekend and I'm now tasked with my first solo tire change. I'm sure Dad had gone over this task with me at some point, and I'm sure I had seen him do it multiple times, but I had never had to do it when dad wasn't around. A drawback to having a really handy dad is that stuff get fixed and maintained almost by magic, and it's easy to learn to take stuff for granted.
So on my first ever tire change I find myself with sticky lug nuts, which made me question which way I needed to turn them to loosen them up. My future cousin in law Natalie happened to be along that weekend and managed to be the first person in life who told me the rhyme, "lefty loosey, righty tighty". Boom, lesson lived and learned. I use that nugget still to this day when I have to change a damn tire.
4 comments:
That's so funny! I don't remember who taught me "righty tighty, lefty loosey" but I still use it all the time. And, I can't remember the first time I changed a tire, but I definitely remember the first time I got a flat tire in LA and my coworker thought I was nuts that I was going to change it myself! She said "don't you have Triple A for that," and I said, "no, and why would I need someone to change my tire for me?"
Hah! I am with Devin in not remembering who taught me that. Cute story. Apparently I'm the only strecker child that doesn't know how to change a tire. :/
Oh funny story for sure! Yes, Brandon, the Nissan came from Beloit! And thank God for the Natalie's of the world. Would you believe me if I told you Glen was the person to teach me that, only it hasn't been that many years ago! ( I come from a family of UN-handy people!)
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