Your dad gets props for raising you right. Knowing how to change a tire can be a very valuable skill. The expansion of road side services like AAA is because people have lost this skill , it is not taught anymore like it used to be years ago. I've changed plenty of tires for other people and saved them $100 or more for a roadside call. I was buying a tire a few months ago , seen a tow truck come in with a car with a flat. Two women with the car , they had driven on the flat until the wheel was shot. Now they need a tire , wheel and got to pay a tow bill. Guessing $500 it cost them because they didn't know how to do it. If I was their husband , they would be getting a lesson real soon. I've taught my girlfriend how to do it. $500 is a lot of coin to just spend because you can't do it.

I have said this for years , changing a tire , knowing how to check the oil and jump starting a car correctly should be part of drivers education.

I wouldn’t say lack of skill as most folks can read and there is step by step in the manual. The reason for an increase in membership of AAA is wealth. People weigh the cost to aggravation and now a days they have more money than tolerance.

That is sad. When I went to school , it was cheaper there than going to private driving school on your own. My guess is the school subsidized it. Bet those funds were hijacked for something less worthy.

But in your stories case...everything happens according to Gods plan. May not like it, but he’s always there looking out for ya!

Not much to changing a tire...finding the dang jack is the issue!!

Have to throw this out there about changing a tire. Had my 2014 Ford F150 in for 4 new tires. The service desk guy tells me they can't get a rear wheel off, tight on the center hub diameter. He had been pounding the rim with a dead blow hammer and squirting it up with solvent, wanted to use a torch on it. Had him go into the hardware area and come back with a 10 lb sledge hammer. I asked him to hit the back side of rim on the wheel weight with that hammer and it came right off. I did the same on the front last summer when I needed to do the brakes, but it was the rotors that gave me more problems, stripped a jack screw on them, my fault, the thread was metric, only did it in one hole, not 4, I'm not totally useless.

What is worse is putting it back exactly the only one way it will fit.

Many years ago when I was traveling home I was on the interstate and passed an older couple along the road. The lady was standing at the rear of the car looking at what I thought was a flat tire. I was traveling at a high rate of speed so I didn't get a real good look. I pulled over down the road for some reason. I was in a rush to get home but I got stopped and backed up to her. Just something made me do it, how do you explain things like that.

The husband was in the car, I was to find out he was handicapped and blind. Not a good place to be alone as it was a relatively remote area of highway and cold out. It turned out to be a flat and I fixed it for them. She thanked me several times and wanted to pay me. I said no and I was just glad I could help. I don't even remember telling her much about me or where I was from. Some how she had enough info from our brief encounter to track me down and find where I lived.

About a month or so later I received a large box and quite heavy at that. I couldn't remember ordering anything nor did my wife. I looked at the address label and still didn't know who it was from. I opened the large box and inside was an envelope with a card inside. I read the card and it was a thank you/appreciation note from the man and woman that I had helped on the road a month earlier.

I was surprised to say the least and found they had bought me a new stereo system that was top of the line for that time period in the 90's. It had to cost hundreds of $$ as I looked around later to see what they would cost.

Good deeds happen more then folks realize and so many go unmentioned in the world even with total strangers. Lots of good people around. When you listen to the news they want you to think the sky is falling at times


Another time I had the jumper cable deal at Walmart with a gal whose battery was low or dead. I was parked close so I got her going again and gave her some advice to get it checked out for bad cells. She offered to have me follow her home and she would make us coffee. I just smiled and said thank you but I have traps to check. I know dumb answer.