Brad Nelson

I had never worked on a diesel engine before. It was about 1969 and I was working for Charles Warnick at Pleasant Grove, Utah, while going to college. One morning, he asked me to grab my toolbox and drive over and help a neighbor.

I think it was about 15 years ago. I was minding my own business, getting a few groceries on my way home. The total fit into two or three plastic bags. The young teenage girl bagging groceries asked me if I needed help out with my purchase.

I taught my 14-year-old grandson how to open a can of chili with a pocketknife the other day. We were at a campground, and it was a “Grandpa and boy only” outing celebrating his birthday. The always-ready camp cooking box wasn’t, which we didn’t notice until we couldn’t produce a can opener.

The engine ran with a miss, but the truck was cheap, so I bought it. It was a Ford C-600, the old tilt-cab version, 1962 model, I think. It was two-tone yellow and black. I thought the engine was Ford’s venerable 292 C.I. Y-block V-8, but when we went for parts, we found out that it was the larger 332 C.I. engine.

Groundhog Day is the event on Feb. 2 of each year when, supposedly, the groundhog comes out of his burrow, looks around, and if there is enough sunlight for him to see his shadow, we are to expect six more weeks of winter weather.

“When you use a file to sharpen a knife, push it so you cut with the file moving away from the edge. When you use a sharpening stone, move either the stone or the blade so that the sharp edge of the blade moves toward the stone.”