[Scott Douglas]

I've been a car guy since about the mid-50's when we moved out to CA. Dad had a '32 Ford Model B that he'd put a Merc flathead V-8 in but Mom wouldn't let him bring it to CA on account of it had mechanical brakes. He was a mechanical engineer that always worked on our cars instead of taking them somewhere to be fixed. He could do it better than any shop ever could. He had my brother and me rebuilding engines at an early age before we could drive. He got us our first go kart. We put the rod thru the side of the engine and he knew of one of the only shops that had a heliarc machine at the time to get it fixed. Growing up in Santa Monica, it was a no brainer that Formula One would be a large influence since Phil Hill lived there. His dad was a former post master for SM.
Building model cars we were sniffing glue before it became a 'thing' to get high on. We always had to have our windows open when doing it in our room no matter how cold it was outside.
I couldn't wait to get to high school since they had an AUTO shop class!
Yeah, it was a piece of cake but it was nice that Mr J. (RIP) appreciated having a guy who knew some stuff and wanted to learn more and wasn't a screw-up like a lot of the guys were back in the day.