It was about 1985 when it snowed in Seattle and some idiot in front of me
stopped timidly halfway up a hill, leaving me no choice but to stop and back
down the icy slope before someone jammed up behind me. My car slid slowly
sideways and down, coming to rest gently against the corner of another car. No
damage except I had a neat full moon dimple about 20" across in the door. I
bought a rubber suction cup and popped out the dimple and felt real proud of
myself. About two weeks ago a friend of my son's showed up to pick him up. He
was driving his mom's Volvo station wagon with a very similar dent. I impressed
the hell out of everyone by pulling out that same suction cup and popping out
his dent. Not so much because I knew how to pop out the dent, but because I knew
exactly where a tool was I bought 20 years ago and hadn't touched since except
to move about 4 times. Packrat? Maybe, but it saved heavy body work costs both
times, and didn't take up much room. Either a guy has tools or he doesn't. - GWE

Bill Chernoff wrote:
My son got his bicycle chain all caught around the crank. The only solution
was to pull the crank off, for which I needed a special puller. No problem!
To the toolbox I went, dug down a few layers and produced a special puller
for my own bike that I made under my grampa's direction on his 9 inch Atlas.
This was way back when I was still in university. I built this tool before
you were born, I declared to my son. See, its even engraved Grampa & Bill
1985. The boy was only moderately impressed. He was way more interested in
getting the bike fixed than hearing a discourse on the providence of the
tools we were using. So I showed my wife later and she was not impressed at
all. Especially when I admitted I had now used the tool twice, once in
1985, and once yesterday. You're such a packrat, it doesn't surprise me at
all she says. So I put the tool back in the box. Someday I'll pull it out
again, and I'll not tell anyone where it came from, because I know. Grampa
can't even walk any more, let alone spend an afternoon working on his old
(but bought new in 1956) Atlas. But we did in 1985, and I've got the tool
to prove it. Maybe some of you guys will understand.