Feeding Curiosity



that looks a lot like a wrench I have been missing

I have always been curious about how things work. So curious that I like to take things apart sometimes just to see the inside and learn how to put it back together. I don't know how young I was when I began taking things apart and putting them back together (or trying to) but I know that some of my first memories are of my Opa (my father's father) and his little workshop in his basement at 1212 Peach Street.

Opa had a ton of tools that fascinated me as a child and he liked to fix old radios; of which he had quite the collection. He passed away shortly after I turned 5. When he was alive he would sit me on his workbench and allow me to play with a small screwdriver set while he would tinker with his radios. I remember sitting atop of his old work bench with a little red and yellow handled screwdriver set (that came in a little pocket protector pouch) poking, prodding and screwing little screws on presumably broken circuit boards that he would allow me to handle.

When I was three or four (I can't really distinguish the time of the memories, only that I possess these distinct memories of him) I would sneak into his workshop to snoop around. He always caught me before I would mess with something. It was as if he had some sort of detection skills that let him know when one of the kids was messing with his stuff. He wouldn't yell at me but rather show me what something did or what he was doing with it and what it was supposed to do.

Opa used to take me into the workshop when my older brother and cousin would be teasing me to keep me occupied with something else. I remember his thick Dutch accent well telling me, "Don't cry Billy D. Forget those boys. They are too old for you. Come play with me instead." To this day this is what I remember him most for. He was my savior back then and I will always thank him not only for saving me from my evil older brother but also for fostering the curiosity inside of me for how things work that I had as a young boy.

The reason I have been thinking about him and my inquisitive side is that I have recently noticed this curiosity in my son. Already at age two he is turning things over or trying to open stuff to see what is inside. He even tips his power wheels four wheeler over and "fixes" it with his play tools. His imagination gets me laughing so hard sometimes because he actually thinks he is fixing something. I'll ask him "what are ya fixin bud" and his response always sounds something like "I dunno but its broke dada".

For me, this is amazing because I am still learning what a lot of things do and now when I learn new things I will be able to pass the knowledge on to him. One day while working on my mountain bike he literally sat and watched for a couple of minutes holding my tools for me. Neither of us knew what we were doing but we got it working, together.

What's that dada?

Maybe his obsession with matchbox cars will translate to a curiosity of engines and fast cars like mine did. That will give us something in common that we can work on together. I just have to stay ahead of the curve and learn about the things we work on before he does so I always seem smarter (even though all of us know that isn't the truth). We can't have him getting a leg up on his old man now can we?

Only time will tell whether I can be helpful or not but I will try my hardest to be a resource for his ever growing inquisitiveness. I guess that is the goal here; to always be looked up to and revered.