A man, a son and quality time – in the garage

[TrainTrac]

I thought those of you who are fathers with sons would appreciate this piece. My son is just turning five next month, and practically every time I go out to the garage, he wants to be out there with me. Being a dad is great! Wayne Foy, this is what you can look forward to with Cody!

The Virginian Pilot

25 October 2005

By Greg Ward



A man, a son and quality time – in the garage



AS I ENTER into my mid-40s, I am puzzled by the childhood memories that readily come to mind.



I remember the first bus ride to school. Scraping my knee on the driveway of our new home in Chesapeake in 1967. And playing with my father as a toddler, throwing a beach ball on the roof and watching it roll down and thinking that was the greatest thing anyone could ever do.



As a parent of an 8-yearold boy, I often wonder what moments of his childhood he will carry into his mid-40s and beyond.



I hope one of them is the garage.



While mothers feel the most important activity husbands can do in a garage is clean it up for a change, this special room is a breeding ground for creativity and adventure. If a man’s home is his castle, “garaging” is the sport of kings and their princes.



The preferred arena is a single-car garage, where there is little hope of a car ever fitting. The small space and clutter encourage togetherness.



Because garaging is a freeform experience, it’s best to dress casual. I don’t mean “work casual” like you’re on your way to a corporate retreat. My son, Adam, chooses to complement his ensemble with last year’s snow boots, even if he’s wearing shorts. There’s something acoustically comforting about the clomp, clomp, clomp as he walks across the garage seeking new adventures.



It’s best to have country or classic rock playing on a vintage boom box. If you still have an eight-track stereo with tapes by ’70s bands like Boston, Led Zeppelin and Peter Frampton, that’s all the better.



We’ve invented some great garaging games, like Razor Scooter Limbo. It took a while for Adam to realize that the height of the scooter handle bars has a direct effect on the “how low can you go” factor.



One Christmas I received a handy telescoping-antennalike device with a small magnet on the end. We’ve put it to good use, as I drop metal screws and bolts under work benches and let him retrieve them.



Hey, even elementary schoolage children get frustrated with the day to day, so I let him work out his frustrations with a hammer, nails and wood scraps. Nailing to the beat of the music blaring in the garage makes it that more enjoyable.



A toolbox in disarray makes a great treasure chest. Digging through mine has yielded everything from foreign coins to keys to my first car – a ’75 Ford Mustang, by the way.



Garaging is a great opportunity to take the ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary. Or, as my son said, clomp, clomp, clomping down the hall, “That was some good garage time.”



Hopefully, he’ll repeat the same phrase 20 or 30 years from now.





• Greg Ward’s garage is open for fun in Virginia Beach. Reach him online at [email protected].

 

[Dreman]

Now that we have a garage, we are going to be spending a little garage time. After we get all the stuff out of it and into the house, that is!

 

[LoriMaury Kimbrough]

That's not just for Dad's and son's anymore. I spent many weekends with my dad working on his various cars. I believe that we have the close relationship that we do today because of that quality time that we spent working together. My daughter helped up put the new engine in our Bronco. Here she is doing her first oil change, about 5 years ago. She used to beg to do it and still today changes her own oil.



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Moral of the story...Dad's do be afraid to get your girls out there too.

 

[John Zuber]

When my oldest was around 5 or so (he's 17 now), he enjoyed spending time in the back of my truck (not an ST) when it was parked in the garage. My truck had a bed liner in it, any he would play with some small sections of scrap 2x2's. He also enjoyed sitting on the workbench, playing with the vice and other safe tools.

 

[gary s]

nice story !, now i can relate with the recent pre-adoption of our son Tyler. he is already excited about going to corvette shows and he loves the trac !

every wednesday night he is excited to watch "nopi tunervision" and "pinks" on speed channel.



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[Gavin Allan]

YAY KIMBRO!!! GIRLS CAN WORK ON CARS TOO!



Females can work in nearly any career-- and there are many technical fields that are ripe for the picking for females to enter. Even if your daughter doesn't work in such a field, she is well-prepared to handle technology in life and solve problems, plus she knows the importance of proper maintenance and can do it herself!



I don't have kids, but I try to get others involved as well when I can. My cats just are not real interested in working on my vehicles. (One loves to help apply address labels to letters that I send, so I figure this one's vocation is probably in Accounting or Purchasing....)

 

[Bill V]

I'm wanting to know more about how the author found a '75 Ford Mustang in his toolbox. That has to be one @$%#ing big toolbox!!!



(And yes, I do know what the intent of his words were. But it's definitely possible to read them differently.)

 

[TrainTrac]

Bill,



Read it again--He found the keys to his '75 Mustang!

 

[Dana OBrien]

I already bring my 2 1/2 yr old out the garage. he bangs on stuff and digs in my tool box, he usually has a better time than I do.

some day he will be using tose tools without permission, probably losing 80% of them in the process. hiding beer and girlie magazines in there...*sniffle* what a beautiful thing!

 

[Bill V]

Andy H--



Like I said, yeah, I know that's what he meant. But when someone says "everything from A to B to C", usually they're referring to three separate entities--they're not saying that B belongs to C, or that A belongs to B. So when he says "everything from foreign coins to keys to his first car", it sounds like he's referring to coins, keys, and a car.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I used to watch my dad work on his cars too. He's not much of a mechanic, but he sure knew how to cuss! I'm exactly like him -- I hate working on vehicles.