A Baby Boomer buddy of mine in Montana sent me these pictures in a email. It just made me smile.
He forwarded this email to me and at the bottom of the email it said:
“Boys and their toys!!!!!!!!!!
Kerri
Montana snowmobile 1...
Now it seems to me that it takes a certain kind of woman to understand the qualities in a man who could actually understand the joy a guy gets from creating something like this…
If you have never spent time in Montana, it might be hard to understand the dynamics of this communication.
Montana snowmobile 2...
I don’t know a whole lot of people who could personally create a buggy like this. The guy who sent me this email is one of them – a mechanical wizard that a lot of people depend on.
I understand this kind of talent and appreciate the kind of capability it takes to fabricate a machine like this.
I wintered in Montana for 10 years and there is a commonly shared sense of independence and internal strength among the people (men and women both) that seems to be fading among city dwellers, in general. I used to have a business with a guy who was born with mechanical genius. He could figure anything out in our shop and make it work. He crafted beautiful tools for woodworkers and I sold them.
Montana snowmobile 3...
There was a term among the engineers who built the kind of precision equipment we used in our shop for grinding carbide. It was a term of endearment among other engineers.
They used to call my partner:
a mechanic…
It was also a recognition of talent and engineering genius coupled with true craftsmanship. My dad was an engineer – an electrical engineer – and he was incredibly good at it. But he could not wire a house or drive a car. He was not mechanical in any sense even though he was brilliant in many ways.
On the other hand, I knew another guy, a close friend of my brother in law’s, who built his own airplane from scratch in his garage in Berkeley, California – every last nut and bolt.
To me “Boys and their toys!!!!!!!!” encapsulates Kerri’s understanding of what I just said in one sentence. And it goes beyond that. It is rare any more when a woman admires and encourages how a man is what he is.
I am very fortunate because my wife is one of those women who does.
Is this thing cool – or what? I bet that machine is a hand full with the throttle down.
Happy New Year from
Michael Barrett
Sarasota, Florida
