I’m 69, just a kid at heart. I do a little bit of all the repairs that I have to have on my cars because … I’m on a fixed income. I retired from the Navy in ’73. I have a small pension that comes from that, and I have Social Security. I can’t afford to run to these [professional] shops. You have to pay them $50 to $75 an hour.

I was looking for an upper motor mount for my wife’s car. It’s a little Chevy Corsica. I called Advance Auto Parts and they had it for $83. Well, I went to Chesterfield [Auto Parts], I found me a car just like it, I took the part off for $5.49. [laughs]

I joined the Navy in 1952. I was one of these young men who wanted to see the world. I was about 20 when I joined. I stayed in four years, then I got out and was an active reserve. I was out for about two years then decided to go back in.

I was in French Indochina in 1954, Formosa in 1954, and Saigon, what everybody knows now as Vietnam. Then I made a few trips to Vietnam in later years. I went around the world about five different times.

I was a baker on destroyers. I liked it very much. I’m kind of a weird person according to most people, I guess. After I got out of the Navy I was a painter. … I worked down here at the power plant for 13 years. That’s where I had my [heart] attack, and had to give it up.

I think the majority of people don’t trust themselves with working on their own vehicles, and a lot of them just plain don’t know how, they don’t have the tools to do it. Then a lot of people just don’t like to get greasy. You know anytime you mess with an old car you’re going to get greasy. [laughs]