True Stories From The Shop ... Men are So Funny

Early in my life I was working in full service station (remember when we pumped the gas for for you?) and was a pump jockey/apprentice mechanic. The lead asked for a hand as he was trying to "diagnose" a no start situation on a FI GM. Well, he thought he'd spray ether in the thottle body while I cranked it over. After about 20 seconds and half a can or ether there was a huge flash and a WHUMP sound... I jumped out of the car to see him standing there, face blackened and his hair smoking. We both started cracking up.

At that very second a customer came in the door and I said "I better get this". He said "No wait, I'll take this one" and ran towards the glass door that seperated the shop from the cashier station. So there he is in what looks like blackface, missing most of his eyebrows and hair still smoking, being dead serious with this woman who wanted a price on shocks. I was literally rolling on the floor of the concrete shop, pounding my fists into the floor so she wouldn't hear me laughing.

Every now and again that vision pops into my head and I'll start laughing like a mad man. I never forget that until the day I die.