[TR] Why

[John Macartney]

Jonmac is in grumpy old git mode today!

Took the dog for a shorter walk today because of the rain. This meant me on my mobility scooter with dog alongside, traversing a nearby industrial estate where there’s a car body shop specialising in repainting and lots of difficult sheet metal stuff. I know them all quite well and the dogs always welcome, so I’m allowed inside to see what they’re doing and having a chat. Today a trainee was reassembling a cylinder head on a Repainted Herald and I was horrified to see the lack of washers under the head nuts. I didn’t say anything but it annoyed me. For a start, it flew fully in the face of my training years ago. When fitting hardware, you always always always fitted a washer under the bolt head and another washer under the nut. These days when I watch TV of some bloke fitting something to something else, the use of washers is minimal to non existent. Why? I made that mistake of not using a washer once a long time ago at Jaguar when I was doing my Service Dept training and my omission was noted by the Senior Foreman who was a stickler for doing things right every time, all the time. My punishment? A missed lunch break because it was spent on all fours pushing a one inch diameter plain washer round the lube bay floor with my nose - twice! The first lap was because of what I didn’t do and the second was so I’d never forget. That’s how it was in the U.K. in those days and there was nothing illegal in humiliating someone at work and if I’d refused, there would have been a disciplinary. I think that if the trainee I saw not doing his job today was told to do what I did sixty years ago, he’d have his employer in court for damages and unreasonable workplace treatment! It’s these know-all jerks on TV like the Top Gear mob, Clarkson, Hammond, Mike Brewer and a few others doing it wrong, that is teaching youngsters that sloppy work is perfectly acceptable.
Now going back to my hole in the ground where there are fresh leaves, clean moss and an interesting Single Malt awaiting my enjoyment.

JM

Lady Astor: “Winston, if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee.”
Churchill: “ Madam, if I was your husband,, I’d drink it!”