So I go out for breakfast the other morning.
In the parking lot of the diner is a lady standing by her car with a jack under the left front tire.
I asked if she needed any help
Apparently the rust had gotten under the wheel nut cover and had swelled it such that the lung wrench would not fit onto the wheel nut.
I offered to pull out some sockets from my truck and pull off the offending nut, but she said her son had gone to the local Home Improvement store to buy the proper socket wrench and would be back soon. She thanked me for my offer of help and I went in to have breakfast. If she had help coming, fine, I won’t leave a woman on the side of the road helpless, but she said she had it in hand, so…..
I ate a leisurely breakfast, and when I came out of the diner and she and her car are still there. As is a 25 year old or so man. He looks exasperated and was doing something with a tool in one hand.
I amble over and see that he is trying to pry a socket off of the ratchet handle with a screwdriver..
I go over and ask if he need any help. Apparently he had put the wrong size socket on the ratchet handle and now could not get it off. He had tried prying with a screwdriver, but no joy. (Note that this was a brand new store brand socket and ratchet set). I reached out, took the ratchet from him, pushed the button on the back of the ratchet and the socket fell right off. Dude was shocked, he had no idea that that was how it worked.
I decided to stick around for a minute. He put the now correct socket onto the ratchet handle, and tried to move the nut. Nope, on there pretty tight. He tried to step on it (at least he had some idea of what was needed) but the socket slipped.
I took the wrench from him, pulled the jack out, put it under the head of the ratchet, and pushed down with my foot. Boom, one loosened nut. Again, he was dazzled by my knowledge….I used a hammer (from my tools) on the end of his ratchet on one other stubborn nut to get it to turn.
He was worried about the fact that she might not get home with a missing lug nut, but I pointed out that there were 4 others to hold the spare tire on, and he could always tighten the swelled up nut and use it again since he now had the correct socket and the knowledge to use it….
He was unsure how to reverse the direction of the ratchet, so I showed him that as well.
Dude was well over 20 years old and had no knowledge of how to use basic hand tools.
Looking at his mother, it is obvious that she “didn’t need a man in her life”, and likely raised him by herself.
Sad….really, really, sad. I knew more when I was 12 than this dude knows at twice that age.
I made sure the tire was installed correctly and suggested that maybe he look at all the lug nuts and replace those that were swelled (or maybe all of them)….. Plus maybe use a bit of oil on the threads when he out them back on himself… He said he “didn’t have any oil”. I suggested he could buy some and an oil can. Or they could have a professional look at it and do the work.
How does a boy get to be that age and not have basic knowledge of hand tools? I can understand no Dad, but did he and his friends never do anything besides play video games? I find it frightening that he had zero knowledge of basic tools.