Shop Class as Soulcraft

It’s funny how these internet tubes sometimes actually hit on a real life nerve and something comes across that only just recently happened and you go, “Holy cow, man, that is so true !” I think there is some kind of karma in these internet tubes sometimes.

Via Instapundit today, I learned of the book Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford.

Remember the guys who were in shop class? Remember the guys who opted for trade school as opposed to college? They weren't the new-age cubicle-ready "knowledge workers". They had dirt under their fingernails, and depending on how old you are they might have worn black leather jackets and maybe even (gasp!) actually smoked.

Heh, I think my Dad, who just turned 79, was one of those dudes. He turned out alright.

Well, these guys (and I say guys, because that's what they predominately were) may have the last laugh. Author Matthew B. Crawford says in an interview with Popular Mechanics:

And the truth is that some kids who are very smart would rather be learning to build things and fix things, but they're being hustled off into office work. For me, the tragedy of this is a kid who becomes maybe a B or C student in college because he doesn't really feel like it's the right place for him, and then goes on to becoming a mediocre accountant. But that same guy might have become a crack mechanic because he's more engaged in what he's doing. There's a cost to this.

A comment to the Popular Mechanics interview is worth repeating in its entirety:

I'm in the military at a command where officers and enlisted men train and fight side by side. Many of our enlisted have degrees but to be an officer its mandatory. The leadership skills shown by our officers are bar-none the best our military has to offer. However, at the end of the day it's the sled dog that patches a leaky radiator or welds a broken gun mount back together that really keeps the war wheel turning. The guy who out of nowhere jumps in a nearby farmer’s tractor and pull’s your humvee out of the mud. He didn't go to a school to learn those things nor did the military train him. It was his life experience that gave him those skills. I have a degree myself but if it weren’t for the simple mechanical and electrical skills I learned in my youth, you can bet I wouldn’t be here to write this!!

So, what is this internet karma I'm talking about? This past weekend we had an impromptu ride into Amish country. Three bikes: Chainsaw and myself, Cowpie, and Angry Inch. It was a beautiful day, and we all needed the ride. We stopped at an A-Plus Mini-Market on Route 41 in Avondale. Once we did our business, we were ready to haul ass, but alas Cowpie's bike wouldn't start.

I'll let Chainsaw take it from here:

Cowpie's 1999 Road King was dead. No fire, no lights, nothing but a horn and the mileage display. We checked all the fuses, they were fine, took the kill switch/start button housing apart, everything looked good in there.

When you turned the switch on, the mileage would light up, but nothing else. I suggested that if we could get a piece of electrical wire, that I could jump the key switch and hot wire it. I looked in dumpsters for junk wire, and even walked across the highway to the Turkey Hill store to see what their meager automotive shelf had, which was nothing so, Me 'n Shirley rode back up the road a short piece to the CVS drugstore and bought a $5.00 extension cord, and cut it up and poked bared wire ends into the female portion that plugs into the key switch.

I got the headlights and the electric fuel pump to come on, but no starter. Next, I cut another piece of wire, bared both ends, split them apart but wound one end together and jumped all 3 conections and bumped the starter button and she fired up.

Now, this will only work on a Road King or an FX with a dash or a frame mounted switch, you're pretty much fucked if it happens to an FLH. He wrapped it all up tight with some electrical tape, slapped the dash back on, fired it up, an away we went to the Green Tree Inn. When we got there, Cowpie shut it off with the kill switch, then, he had to take the dash back off and jerk the wires loose so the battery wasn't running juice to the EFI, headlights, and the indicator lights on the dash.

We had a few brews then it was back to the Road King dash with the wire and the electrical tape. Contact! And away we went again.It never sputtered or showed its ass even hitting all those bumps and ruts on 896 up through Amish country.

All Cowpie needs to do is take the 4 bolts off of the back of the switch and see if it falls away from the outer portion and replace only that portion so he doesnt have to buy a whole new key and switch set-up.

Here they are thinking about it:



Here they are doing it:


Heh, and not a college degree in the bunch.

Now, if you've gotten this far, I find it safe enough to say that Chainsaw commented after the deed was done: "All those years beatin' off to Easyriders Magazine as a kid finally paid off !" Of course, he swears he only ever read that magazine for the "Tech Tips". Oh, and Miraculous Mutha. Sure.

The ride was not interrrupted.

There is something to be said about being able to do stuff. Real stuff that means something when the chips are down.

And I think that's what Matthew Crawford is saying, albeit much better than I ever could.