I grew up in an area of the country that was so rural kids had their own vehicles as soon as the law allowed because it was impossible for parents to get them around otherwise. This is a part of the country where a thirty-five minute commute is considered “short”, there was no such thing as a “quick trip” anywhere, and the roads were dirt.
In this part of the county, afternoons in the spring are a teenager’s playground. Parents are still at work, school activities aren’t as frequent, and the weather was warming up enough to enjoy the river. One afternoon as a junior, a group of friends and I were hanging out at the river down an long path of dirt roads. I left the group to take a friend home and noticed another friend in the ditch trying to change his tire. I proceeded onward after he assured us that he had everything under control.
Forty-five minutes, and a short afternoon thunder storm later, I was making my way back down that dirt road when I saw our friend. He was still there trying to get his tire fixed. At this point he was angry, wet — and pant-less? In an attempt to keep his new jeans safe he was crawling under his truck without them in his red plaid shorts. Completely muddy. Totally angry. And helpless.
He had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get his spare tire down for almost two hours!
I pleaded with him to let me drive him home. After a little persuading, he crawled out from under his truck and looked at my tires. He quickly checked out the thread pattern, smiled, and asked — “Do you have a spare?”
Within ten minutes my spare was on his truck, and I was following him home. We arrived at his home greeted by his parents; who were very confused as to why their son was almost naked, muddy, and using my spare tire. His dad walked over to his truck, pulled out the tire release tool, and showed him how to take his spare tire down in less than three minutes!
The moral of this story:
Always practice changing the tire when you get a new vehicle!
