I was recently reminded of an experience in my past and I wanted to share it.
I was driving one of my VW's. I don't remember which one. I was on I-35 headed from Denton to Garland and the car just quit on me in the middle of the highway. I walked across the northbound lanes of 35 to get to the gas station to call home. I called my dad from the pay phone and he told me to figure something out.
I went back to my car (crossing the northbound lanes of I-35) and put the hood up and was really perplexed. I realized that something had fallen off in the engine. It looked like the coil bracket had gone away and things weren't hooking up. I dug through the stuff I had in the back seat and found some yarn and I made the part connect again and I tied it down with the yarn.
Some man stopped to see what I was doing and saw that I was tying car parts on with yarn and expressed some concern. I tried to start the car and it started. The man asked me where I was going and I told him I was going home to Garland. He told me he would follow me to make sure I got there.
This nice man followed me from Carrollton to Garland. He said that he would hope that if his daughter broke down on the side of the highway that someone kind would help her. I got off at Northwest Highway and drove up to the Phillips 66 at Northwest HWY at Centerville. I pulled into the garage and got out and asked the mechanic if he had a coil for a '67 VW beetle and he went around and pulled up my hood and saw all the yarn tying things on and he about fell out laughing. He DID have a coil that would fit and he put the part on and he charged me less than seven dollars. He cut off all the yarn.
Dad, I figured it out, but I was really lucky that the folks that stopped to help me were nice people. I'd be terrified today if it was my daughter out there on the side of the highway trying to figure out what to do.
