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I was just fascinated that they could be driven. I had Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs as a kid, but my favorite toys were some copper pipe fittings that were left in a room in our chicken house that I put together shapes from. From there I cobbled together a wooden coaster that would run down the only 10' hill on our property. A lot of work for not much excitement, but I did build it myself.
When I was 8 I was old enough to drive the tractors on our farm. It took a LOT of hours, but I learned to get a feel for machinery. Some of it seemed to be instinct and some I learned. When my dad and I were both plowing in the field - him on a John Deere 520 and me on a model 50 the noise was awful. Dad did nothing about it. It was up to me, at the age of 9, to figure out that if I moved the throttle just a bit the engine's sounds would be in synch and the two of us working together would sound like a smooth running machine. I have no idea how I learned the concept of a smooth running machine. I think that part was instinct.
It wasn't such a big leap from tractors to cars and trucks once I was in high school.
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