7 thoughts on “Engine Lockup”

1. So you still can’t resist ripping engines apart.

   Remember when we rebuilt the engine in my ’66 Olds? The good old days when we drove big, gas guzzling boats that stunk of cigarette smoke, with 8-track stereos, CB Radios, and didn’t even consider wearing seat belts.

2. Tearing engines apart is somewhat medicinal for me. I can relax and take my time tearing them down, measuring, then refurbishing as necessary, and finally putting them back together.

   And I really hadn’t thought of the work we did on your car in years. At the time it was such a challenge. I was so glad that I didn’t kill it – I remember looking back when I was in my late 20′s thinking I was so lucky to have lived through it, with some of the things we did.

3. I’ve had the same thoughts, but then again some of that stuff we did was hilarious. Tommy was here about 2 years ago. We had talked on the phone many times, but hadn’t seen each other in about 15 years. We laughed for hours as we kept remembering different things — Charlottesville, Myrtle Beach. etc. Both of our sons were 13 at the time and they just ate it up. We were laughing so hard I thought they were going to throw us out of the restaurant.

4. Let’s see – Charlottesville – Double beef Whopper with extra grease, and “Buttermilk Tonight”, or was that U of M’s rendition of “Here comes the sun !”, Myrtle Beach – “The Whitney wash bucket” – That girl I met that lived exactly at the other end of the beltway (how convenient) – Then of course the party at Whitney’s where I picked her up and Whitney went and brought some guy he’d met from West Virginia, Toting two gallons of “shine”. That wasn’t Whitney’s birthday, was it ?

5. “Buttermilk” was Charlottesville. “Whopper with Extra Grease” was the 2 am drive thru in Myrtle Beach. You’re probably confusing that with Whitney’s 8 pieces of buttered toast he ate when we stopped for breakfast on the way down to UVA. It was November and we had to drive down US 29 with the windows open for about 2 hours.

   Could have been his birthday, as his was in late July. We had so many parties in his basement its hard to remember. I generally only remembered about the first hour of any of them anyway. I do remember doing Tequila shots for the first time and sneaking upstairs to sleep it off, and woke up the next morning with some naked fat Shoetown girl laying next to me. To this day I have no idea what actualy happened.

6. One of the funniest, I thought, (and most disgusting) was U of M’s “Here comes the sun” at 6am over the railing of the 3rd floor. And of course all of us sitting on (was that University of Virginia ) side, and heckling them. It was so funny, initially they were somewhat pissed off, but then figured we were too crazy to be mad at.

7. We were at University of Virginia, but we were in the section reserved for Maryland fans. You and I went down to buy the tickets in College Park a few days before the game.

   Dean was annoying them with his belly laugh and this big plastic horn he kept blowing. Then when he got a little drunker he was jumping & shouting along with the Maryland cheerleaders.

   Meanwhile, TW still had plenty of gas after refueling at lunch. He would set one off about every ten minutes and it was rancid. The people behind us — young alumni probably in their late 20′s — were getting totally grossed out. The funniest thing was that they thought it was Dean (naturally assuming it was the fat guy) and never figured out it was Tom (who was sitting right in front of them).

   Then back at the hotel some of you guys went out a pushed my car to the other side of the parking lot and told me someone stole it. We had two rooms and filled the bathtub in one of them with beer & ice. Every time time I hear “Here Comes the Sun” I remember the Charlottesville sunrise shower.