Where it all began...

RaabTheSaab said:

Couldn't tell ya. My family isn't into cars, none of my close friends are, but I've always been obsessed. From matchbox cars, to legos and models they've just always been my thing. I also like airplanes, boats, and trains. 

Same here. The obsession was always just there. I do vaguely remember being taken to Palwaukee airport when I was 3. At the observation benches, I started barfing out names of just about everything on the ramp. A couple of pilots doing a pre-flight overheard me, came over and asked Grandma how a tiny kid knows all this? She just shrugs and says "He just knows." They ask if I'd like to sit in the 172's cockpit. And I've been looking up ever since.

As for cars?  My mom had a knack for calling out the model names of old cars. 62 Impala! 70 Mustang! It always impressed me. In the early 90s, I would watch NHRA drag racing with my uncle. We'd also watch those Power Block shows on Sunday mornings.

I'm not 100% sure but that's were it probably started.

Dad was always into cars, fixing our dailies from time to time to keep us on the road, and I tended to gravitate towards the garage from a young age anyway.

I think the first time cars made an impression on me that I remember is Dad taking my brother and I to a car show when I was about 5. I distinctly remember a nice, black, '57 Chevy and my Dad holding me up so I could see the engine, telling me "look all you want, but don't touch"! That and a T-bucket with flames coming from the exhaust when it went to leave the show. I've not been the same since.

I dug out this picture...................hopefully I've inspired one of these kids to get into the hobby.

Another Dad story here, even though mine wasn't really a gearhead at all.

At the time he had a 1971 Mazda 616, the precursor to the Capella. He is driving me to elementary school, me sitting on the passenger seat because, well, Greece in the 70's. While driving, he is scolding me about something I said to my mother that morning as usual.

He takes an uphill right, we hit water, the car snaps into oversteer... and he simply countersteers and corrects it in one, never, EVER, taking his eyes and his attention from me while he is doing so, only looking up ahead again after he corrected the slide. Ever since then... I was hooked, even pretending to be sleepy when we went out for family dinners, so i could go 'nap' in the car - which translated to me practicing gear changes on an imaginary road with the car turned off.

It was Dad. A lifelong gearhead himself, he worked for NASA, loved boats, motorcycles, cars-you name it. He was a licensed pilot, and when I was an infant, the family would rent a Cessna and fly to the Bahamas with the old man doing barrel rolls, and flying us upside down over Disney World (or is it Land?-the one in Florida). We moved to Tn, where it was all cars all the time. It was not at all uncommon to see an immaculate muscle car parked outside a single wide. There was not a lot of money floating around, and extravagant housing was not on the menu, but cars were easier entry. Get a factory job, or join the military, and that Formula Firebird, Barracuda, or Camaro could be yours. My neighbor had a '66 Chevelle with a tunnel ram and swivel buckets.

Our house was much the same. No foundation, floors visibly not level, and a dirt road out front, but we had Cadillacs, Jags, VWs of all descriptions, MGs and Austin Healeys. Rural living pretty much demanded a sweet ride. At 9, Dad let me buy my first car, and start driving. He was behind the wheel tying his signature bandana around his head the first time I took the wheel. He hit the gas around a 90 degree gravel corner, kicking the rear of my '63 Sprite around. Who wouldn't be hooked?

Tom1200 said:

I dug out this picture...................hopefully I've inspired one of these kids to get into the hobby.

My son is starting Pre-K 4 at a private school this fall. While touring the school they asked what we do for a living and what our hobbies are. They pro-actively asked me if I was willing to do something like this for the middle school aged kids. 

Should be fun 

In reply to AClockworkGarage :

When I was little on the west side of cleveland, our garage had a 48 and 54 chevy in it that were pretty derelict. Next door was Bill Becker, who had a gorgeous red 65 Impala SS convertible with cragars. When i was around 5 he took me for a ride around the neighborhood in it and I was done. I used to hang out in the garage with him until we moved, and I still make the effort to stop in and see him sometimes or make sure I get to the vietnam vets car show he puts on. 

I grew up pretty poor and by driving age, I definitely lacked the funds for a car, let alone anything cool. I had briefly mentioned to my grandfather that I wanted a "vintage Mustang." Dreams of a late 60's fastback danced in my head for weeks. As Summer began, my grandfather called to tell me he had found an old Mustang, but it needed a lot of work. 

It needed a lot of work, he told me, but he would pay for parts if I forfeited my Summer and spent it repairing the car with him. Long story short, we ended up pulling an '82 mustang hatch out of a farmer's field for $100. It started life as a v6 auto, we quickly found that the bores were pitted and rusty, so we spent the entire Summer putting a junkyard 5.0L in it.

At the end  of Summer I was exhausted and had a poorly running car, but truth be told I hadn't absorbed that much knowledge. With a running vehicle, I got a job, and a slightly older teen that worked there was really into DSMs. He and I became good friends and that really cemented me into car culture.