This was originally the editorial piece in a Weekly Word Newsletter. When it went out, a few people suggested that it would make a great Forum discussion/reminiscing topic. So here it is for you to read, and then head to the comments to recall the people you’ve taught, or who taught you.
Hands that guide
In this time of screens and digital entertainment, I fear we may be designing out tools from our lives. I wonder how many of the houses on your street have garages, and of those garages how many have been converted to some sort of playroom, utility room or subsumed into a kitchen extension? Even sheds have been reduced to mere storage facilities, packed with bikes (perhaps), but more likely a handful of garden implements and some garden furniture. Summertime soft furnishings awaiting their day in the sun.
I feel like a substantial part of my childhood was spent in sheds or garages where there would invariably be a heavy topped workbench complete with vice and surface layer of grease. Ball bearings lodged in fissures in the aged timber top. That distinctive smell in the air that slightly prickles the nostrils – somewhere between brimstone, burnt rubber and oil.
I know for sure that I had my own hammer before I was school aged, and a hand drill I could use to make holes in wood like some sort of bug hunting bird. Hours were spent in these greasy, dusty caverns, with grandfathers, or my dad. It wasn’t all fixing bikes – there were woodwork projects and go-kart dreams too – but the space was there to watch and learn. To try and to pick up the tools and see how they worked. I don’t recall hearing the rhyme ‘righty tighty, lefty loosey’ until I was an adult, the workshop upbringing rendering such movements beyond conscious thought.
You are probably different. Your house is not like the others on the street. You probably still have a toolbox and the means to conduct your own repairs to your bike (even if you prefer not to be doing them). But are those tools out and there for the using? Are they something you share with your kids, or do you retreat, fixing something to be done in private? Are kids to be kept away from the tools (my precious) for fear of them misplacing critical adapters or allowing items to roll away under the freezer? Or is the kids that are precious, and whose skin and fingers must not risk slicing and splicing?
I don’t think our parents loved us any less, as they allowed us to risk bloodshed. Better that we learned than found ourselves helpless later. Maybe it’s not about risk, but instead perhaps today we’re all just too busy. Too busy to let our kids loosen that nut in ten times the time it would take us to do it? Maybe too busy to do our own fettling in the first place?
Tools can certainly be sources of immense frustration. But we all know the saying about blaming your tools. It’s not usually the tools (unless they’re from a Christmas cracker) that are the source of the problem, it’s the hands that guide them. I strongly suspect that you will look fondly upon the person, or people, that helped put tools in your hands. If you get the chance, pass that moment along to someone else.
You make a good point, especially about the time. I will get my kids more involved on the maintenance of their bikes. Rather than do it when they’ve gone to bed so a 5/10 minute job doesn’t become an hours worth yes and no. Consider me converted.
I found the article, in the original newsletter very pertinent, as I have many of your insightful articles, Hannah.
I can’t remember much guidance from others in mechanical matters whilst growing up apart from one grandfather, who was a retired engine driver teaching me a half hour routine for lubricating an Atco cylinder mower – before and after use! My Dad wasn’t very adept at d.i.y. but then took up flying on retirement. The only technical input came from the inheritance of lots of very old cycle specific tools from my Great Uncle Arthur who used to have a bicycle shop, I still use some of them.
I am now reasonably handy but self taught, my d.i.y. skills coming from the Readers Digest and public library, others in the Fire Service and also the necessity from not having much money. I self taught myself bicycle mechanics, again as a necessity, then moved on to motorbikes and cars learning again from colleagues (it wasn’t uncommon to do a clutch change on nights) and the bible of Haynes.
Which brings me to the point of this reply (sighs of relief from the short of patience), I have a Grandson who is hungry for knowledge of practical skills. He twists, pulls and slides anything he can, examining how things work. He’s never happier than getting mucky, the questions come thick and fast, constantly, and as we’re retired we have time, and energy to answer them. He knows which way to tighten a bolt, what a wrench is, how to use a hammer, how to chop wood and clean a chainsaw. He’s not afraid of hard garden work – digging, raking, weeding, planting, brushing until the job’s done.
The strange thing is that it all came from him, his dad, our son-in-law is not remotely practical and we were just keen to encourage him in whatever he showed interest in. He is certainly going to become very practical in life and whilst I can’t claim to be skilled at anything I hope that we’re both giving him a foundation for useful life skills, and lots of good memories, he’s gone home tonight mucky and tired. I’m sure the oily workshop smell will stay with him for life!
He’s just three…
My son has struggled academically in the school system and it ran the risk of damaging his confidence yet in the garage he knows no fear!!! He will tackle anything mechanical. Bikes, engines, metal fabrication…….keeping the zip tie industry afloat!
It has given him confidence, purpose, kudos amongst his mates and sone serious skills.
Also should take this opportunity to say a massive thanks to a very special bike company owner (Cy Turner) who inspired him even further at bespoked this year….Cy took the time to chat to him and they shared RC car stories!
I just wish my lad would put the tools back where he bloody found them.
I was dragged up on a diet of DIY, kit cars and bike maintenance. I don’t recall being all that interested/keen at the time but I “grew up” to be a Mechanical/Marine engineer with a shed full of tools and a have a go attitude to all jobs (except bloody plastering!).
My 7 year old son is sort of interested. I will continue to encourage him to “help” as he grows up. His attention span is currently about 5 minutes at best though….
I fondly remember disappearing into the garage to dismantle my first bikes with my Dad’s old tool box – no cable snips, the allen keys that came with flat pack furniture, spanners and wrenches meant for home DIY. Then trying to piece it all back together with ball bearings everywhere, grit in the grease, and new cables already frayed. Great times. Love garage time.