The wisdom of others

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

My daughter had a flat tire while home for Fall Break this week and while I had definitely taught her how to change a tire, there was one small problem…

She did not have a tire iron. Where did it go? Who knows.

So, I dropped everything and headed up to the Popeye’s parking lot (that’s where she was. I didn’t just suddenly get in the mood for some delicious fried chicken).

We were able to get everything taken care of, but it did remind me of a column I wrote several years ago, and I was able to find it in the online archives and thought it was worth a repeat.

So, here from the July 14, 2020 edition of the Times, is said column: Always heed the wisdom of those that have gone before you.

It’s a simple idea but one I can assure you will be of benefit at

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some point down the line.

It’s simple things, like always change your oil, take a little cash with you on a trip even if it’s just a hundred-dollar bill tucked into your wallet in an emergency, or never pass up an opportunity to use the restroom.

I’ve picked up a little of my own wisdom over the years, and I thought I’d share one of the stories about how I got some of that wisdom.

It was 1991, the summer in between my graduation from high school and beginning college. I was driving down Missouri Street when the front left tire of my car suddenly blew. I limped into the parking lot of what was at the time the Blockbuster Video.

Now, I had seen tires changed a few times and I felt pretty confident I could handle it.

Armed with common sense and the necessary tools, I set about changing the tire. I found the jack and the lugwrench and fetched the “donut” spare tire from the trunk with hopeful enthusiasm.

I jacked the car up, proud of myself for remembering to locate a “hard spot” to put the jack. I cranked away and got the tire off the ground. It was then that I ran into my first snag.

I took my trusty tire tool, secured it to one of the lugnuts and gave it a nice crank…

And the tire spun all the way around.

I examined the situation for a moment. Then I gave it another shot. Again, the whole tire spun, the flat bottom making a little rotation around on the axle.

Now, while I’m sure I would have eventually figured it out on my own, a passerby took it upon himself to dispense some drive-by wisdom from his rolled-down window.

“You have to loosen the lugnuts first, dumb—!” he shouted, not even slowing down based on the cool

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of his voice as he passed.

And just like that, I was bestowed with a bit of knowledge that would never leave me, and one that I would many, many years later pass down to my own kids… with out the requisite “dumb—” part .

Sure enough, I lowered the car back down and lo and behold, the lugnuts were much easier to remove and the rest of the process played out pretty much exactly I had planned.

In the years since, I’ve changed many tires. I’ve had some adventures along the way, with everything from finding out the spare tire itself was also flat to having the jack completely bend in half while jacking up the car to changing a tire in the dark in the rain the night before Christmas.

But you know what, no matter what, I remember to loosen the lugnuts first.