Appreciation post: the old mechanic who showed me how to actually gap a spark plug

I was at a garage sale in Akron last summer and this retired mechanic watched me fumble with a feeler gauge on a lawnmower plug. He grabbed my hand and showed me how to drag the gauge until it barely catches, not forcing it through. Has anyone else had a random stranger teach them a basic skill that instantly made a task easier?

3 comments

3 Comments

avery_flores1728d ago

The hands on stuff is everything. You can watch a hundred YouTube videos but until someone actually guides your hand you don't really feel the difference between a drag that's too tight and one that's just right. That old guy probably learned back when cars had points and condensers and you had to do everything by feel. There's something about that tactile knowledge that gets lost when everything is computerized now. It's like learning to sharpen a knife or tune a carburetor you need that muscle memory built up. People forget that some skills are just physical and need another person to show you the right pressure and motion.

jade_jenkins28d ago

Whoa wait, he actually grabbed your hand and guided you through it? That's wild, most people would just tell you and walk away. That kind of hands-on teaching is seriously rare nowadays.

the_lee28d ago

Really feel that. Hands-on teaching is just different, hard to replace.