[gtobird]

Yup, I grew up in a small town of 12,000 people and like 90% of the people there, I had just enough money for beer on the weekends. My wife's engagement ring came from JC Penney and it was about $125! I remember doing a rebuild on an engine for my Camaro in the 70s and I couldn't afford a piston ring expander or compressor, nor could I afford new pistons. I scrounged enough for rings and bought some used forged pistons from a guy who raced the local 1/4 mile oval. I remember installing the rings on the pistons with my bare hands and then managed to make a ring compressor from an empty can that I cut vertically with a couple of band clamps on the outside of it. It took all day to get the pistons installed because the rings kept popping out of the end of my homemade tool. When it came to installing the engine, I made a structure out of 2 x 4s and had a $12 buffalo brand come along that I got on clearance. In the end, the engine ran pretty dang good.

I'm not a rich man, but as the song goes today.......... "I have more than I could ask for". Like so many people on this forum, I had to work for it and life really is good in my retirement. How in the heck could our country have moved from a system where everyone that works hard has a shot at a good life to where we are today? But I digress......... Got to go and check out the pistons today. We'll see how this goes.