The Daring Dufas posted for all of us...

On one occasion, I ran out of gas on the
Interstate a mile from an exit and gas station. I was in a 1980 Dodge
van so I removed the dog house(engine cover) next to me, removed the air
cleaner then dug through the junk in the back to see what I had in
aerosol can that was somewhat combustible. I found cans of telephone
housing cleaner, carburetor cleaner and starting fluid. I sprayed the
phone cleaner into the carb then started the engine and drove the van
down the shoulder of the highway at a low speed as I sprayed cleaner a
little at a time until it ran out. I switched to carb cleaner and was
able to reach the exit, coast down it, roll up to the service station
then use starting fluid to get up the driveway to the gasoline pump. I
wasn't so disabled at the time and could have walked but I'm lazy and
really didn't have the time to go through trudging around with a gas
can. ^_^

TDD

That was one CLEAN carbatooter. Yeah we had one of these vans in ambulance
service. It wasn't too bad to pull the doghouse but the radio work involved
was a biatch. One of the guys went begging for $$$$ for mag wheels and it
did look sharp to the tune of winning best appearance in any parade we
entered. Used to wax the front & mirrors for bug protection and had to
pullover a couple blocks away to clean it Throw the towels under the bench
seat where no judge ever looked. It was a workhorse, never let us down
except for the heavy duty Leece-Neville alternator which loved to eat diodes
because they didn't like heat. Had Cole battery switches. Way before
electrical management systems. CPR in the back was a real treat... One of
the new recruits wanted to impress us and we gave her the job of washing and
spiffing. Ok until she used Armour All on the leather bench seat. Grab
rails tested on that run... Learned my lesson (I thought) on instructions.
Next female wanted to do same cleaning thing. No Armour All to be used.
Came back later to check. She had waxed the windshield... I guess
daughters weren't taught by fathers/boyfriends about vehicle washing. I got
other stories about fire trucks. Those days were great and even the bad
calls were "good". We didn't know about PTSD then everyone sucked it up. I
remember some calls that I know affected me. I never minded getting woke up
at 3 - 4 in the morning to take some old lady to the hospital that was ill
or end of life. The ones that I didn't like were the drunk driving crashes.
The innocent victims. Cops would recognize the offenders or one would hear
about their records. Different times...

--
Tekkie