I grew up around a mixture of mainly Ford and Chevy vehicles. I remember our little 69 Ford Bronco 289 engine that I used to run the crap out of; almost wrecked it on the old dump road in Craigsville. That 70 mile per hour slide all over the gravel road would have ended my life if I would have crashed. No, not in the crash, by my Dad, after he found out how I crashed.

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It did not take me long to learn that there were many die hard Ford people living in the Craigsville area where I grew up. Two of my most favorite people and friends from that time of my youth were Lester and Daily Colvin. Two of the best guys ever. Boy, it did not take me long to learn that you never said a good word about a Chevy to these guys. I found it to be a lot of fun for a very short period of time by telling one of these guys that a Chevy was better than a Ford. Boy, it was on then. I thought this 12 year old was going to meet the reaper. I finally figured it was best to keep my mouth shut and have fun another way.

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My first small job was at Daniel Motor Company in Craigsville. I washed Pintos that where green, red, blue, yellow, etc. I had Ford Pintos running out my ears. I was thirteen, of course with no license, and would get to transport the vehicles I was cleaning about a block from the car lot to the wash area. Every now and then, Mr. Daniels' grandson would come along, and we would sneak a car and drive it a mile or so out to, you guessed it, the Craisgville dump. I sure saw a lot of that place over the years. One day I washed a 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark lll. This thing had a 460 Engine and would get up the road. The grandson and I took another ride to the dump.  That was my first 100 mile per hour ride! He drove out, I drove back. Well, we did have to dry it off.

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At Daniels, I did get to see some mechanic work being done. The first set of heads I got to handle was a set of 390 Ford heads. They were doing a valve job on them, so I got to clean them up after pulling them out of a 5 gallon bucket of carb cleaner.

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I’ll never forget all those days of learning.

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Stepping back to when I was around eight years old in Craigsville, I had the urge to be a mechanic. I could not resist tearing something apart. There was an old lawn mower that had been left where we had moved in, or maybe it was an old push mower my Dad had retired. Anyway, I felt the overwhelming need to work on it. I first found the shocking experience of pulling the rope while hanging on to the spark plug. Man that was a jolt. I had to share that experience with my brothers and my sister. They did not see the humor. Anyway, I wish more kids would be able to grow up the way I did, and learn to use their hands and brain to make things happen like, repairing, and building something. (That’s why I came up with iHalt. Will explain that in the future) Punching buttons and playing games on cellphones will not get you anywhere. Anyway, I did not have many tools at my disposal to work with. I did find an old screw driver, hammer, and a pair of pliers that belonged to my dad, and I went to work. I could not get but a few screws loose on the outer guards with the pliers. I found that if I struck the head of the bolts on the side with the hammer hitting the screw driver, the bolts could be knocked loose. I tore most of that mower down with the hammer and screw driver ad put it back together. It never ran, but I was happy.