Can I be Frank with you....?

Heh.

You all don't get that joke, but by the end of this post, you will.

You see, I got a very unexpected phone call yesterday. I know you all have heard me talk about Michael, my son. For reasons of privacy, I've never really brought his mom F, into the conversation. That, and I never asked her if it was ok to blog about her.

In any event, back in the day (just before and for a year or two after michael was born) I used to work for her father, Frank. What can I tell you about Frank?

He was a GM line mechanic for 11 years.

He also worked special effects in Hollywood for about the same number of years. You remember the hydraulic lift in Ironside? Yeah, he built that.

Oh, and if you ever catch the appalling piece of crap called A Boy and His Dog, or failing actually watching it, just go to the above link and click on 'more' under the cast and scroll down a bit, you'll see the name Frank Rowe.

Yup, that's him.

This man knows more about motor vehicles than anybody else I know, or have ever known. For instance, once long ago, in the dim days before Al Gore invented the internet, and put worlds of knowledge at our finger tips, I posed Frank a question.

I had long wondered what rack and pinion steering was. I had asked several people, and never gotten an answer. One evening, it occured to me that Frank might have the answer, so I posed the question.

Well, not only did he have the answer, but he grabbed a piece of welding chalk, and got down on the floor and drew diagrams of both rack and pinion steering, and the more conventional worm and sector steering mechanisms.

I was dumfounded. Not only that he had the answer so readily, but that he was able to sketch the whole thing out in a matter of like 2 minutes.

Some years ago, he sold his property in California and moved to Idaho. I helped him in the move, and sadly lost touch with him.

Imagine my surprise, then, when he called me at work yesterday.

Talk about a voice from the past. We chatted for quite a while, exchanging stories from the last 10 years or so, and traded emails so that we can stay in touch. I even made some tentative plans to haul Pops up there to do some fishing. I'd need to get time off though, so we'll see.

Anyhow, just thought I'd share that.

Carne del diablo,

T.