Many people from my age group had off-the-books jobs before they turned 16. When I was thirteen, I worked at a rental store cleaning equipment as it was returned. My father worked there as a mechanic, and the owners were good family friends. My job was to clean and add gas to the machines to prepare them for the next rental. This type of job was common among my friends, and we learned valuable lessons about the work environment that made us successful when we got more permanent jobs. I learned the value of hard work and giving my boss an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. These values may sound old and unfashionable, but there is a lot of truth to them. The greatest lesson I learned was how motors work.
When I started the job, I made one of the greatest discoveries of my life. I am reminded of old movies where someone at the front of a prop plane would crank the propeller to get it going. This concept had escaped me in my traditional schooling. Later in high school, I took a small engine class and was prepared, but at thirteen, I was not ready for the consequences of this little fact. Those who are reading this may already know where this is heading, but I want to share the full details for the non-mechanics.
One of my first lawnmowers was an old one that needed a lot of cleaning. I took great pride in my work and detailed it thoroughly. I set the mower on its side and was scraping and cleaning the underside. It was going well until I decided to move the blade so I could get everything. I moved it, and it cranked. I now know that it was a cycle of the piston. As motors of this style do, it cranked, caught life, and started the motor. I pulled back my hands as quickly as I could into a balled fist. I very slowly extended one finger at a time, hoping to have all ten intact. Luckily, I did have ten fingers and no ill effects to my hands, but I gained a great deal of respect for small engines and their power. I learned the valuable lesson to remove the spark plug wire before turning a mower on its side for work.
With a great deal of introspection, I have concluded that my best lessons have happened organically in the real world. I answered the question about the spark plug wire several years later in the small engine class when the teacher asked what the first thing you should do before working on an engine is. In an effort to protect kids and avoid lawsuits, we have removed these opportunities for them. The upside is that there are fewer children missing digits, but those are lessons lost.