Friday, March 11, 2016

The Screwdriver Story


                                                     The Screwdriver Story
                                                                 1956
                                                            A true Story
                                            Written 4/ 2013 Re-written 2/2016
                                                          Howard Yasgar

I know that there is something important that I should have learned from this screwdriver story.
Thou shall not lie, comes to mind.
However, we must take in consideration that I was only 16 years old at the time the story took place.
Back in in 1956, I only bought “Craftsman tools”, it was because Sears and Roebuck advertised if one of their tools wore out, or broke, they would happily replace it, providing it had not been subjected to misuse or abuse.
I think they still have the same policy today.
It was a good sales gimmick as how could anyone turn down buying a tool with a lifetime warranty.
Craftsman tools were well made, they used hardened chrome plated alloy steel, and they knew that their tools rarely failed or wore out.
Another thing was that besides from their tools being so well made, and carrying a lifetime warranty, there was always was a Sears Roebuck store within driving distance from wherever you were.
So, as a budding mechanic, at age 16,  I was sold on the Craftsman line of tools.
In the winter of 1956, I had a 1940 Ford convertible.
I parked in our backyard, in front of our garage, I had converted the garage into a workshop.
It was extremely cold that winter, so I dressed up really warm and went out to my backyard to start my car up.
The temperature that morning must have been far below freezing, it probably was close to zero or even below that.
I got into the driver’s seat, and tried starting the car, it didn’t start, the battery was stone dead.
I had a battery charger, but it was in the trunk of the car.
I got out and tried turning the key in the cars trunk.
It turned but the trunk was frozen shut.
I went in the garage and looked into my tool box I needed something to pry the trunk open with.
Fortunately I had a jumbo Craftsman screwdriver.
I rarely ever used it because it was so big. It was about 15 inches long and made out of ½ inch square hardened steel.
I took it outside, then I put the key in the trunk and I put the jumbo screwdriver between the trunk lid and the car body. Then, as I turned the key, I pushed down on the screwdriver.
To my surprise the shaft on the screwdriver just snapped in half.
Now this was not a small screwdriver, the shaft was ½ inch square.
I knew early on that at extremely low temperatures metal becomes brittle. So I knew I shouldn’t have used that screwdriver as a pry bar in such cold weather.
I wondered if  Sears Roebuck would give me a new one.
I was planning on heading to Hamden Connecticut that morning and I knew there was a Sears Roebuck store there.
I put another battery in the car, and took the broken screwdriver to the Sears store in Hamden.      
At the Sears store I parked in their parking lot, which was freshly plowed.
I was one of the very few cars there that morning, as it was still freezing cold.
I went into the store, and up the escalator to the Craftsman tool section.
I was carrying my broken Craftsman screwdriver in two pieces.
There was a salesman in the tool department and I handed him the 2 pieces of my screwdriver, and I asked him my lifetime warranty replacement.
The salesman looked at the two pieces, then he looked at me and said, “How the hell did you ever break this?”
Well I wasn’t going to tell him that I was using the screwdriver like a pry bar to open my frozen trunk.
So I said, sir, all I did was turn a screw and the screwdriver broke.
He looked me in the eye and said, you must be kidding, you can’t break a screwdriver like this turning a screw.
He said, “I have worked for Sears for 20 years and never saw one of these giant  screwdrivers broken like this”.
It has a guarantee doesn’t it?  I said, with a straight face.
Yes he said, but the warranty excludes misuse, or abuse of our tools.
So again I gave him my best innocent look.
The salesman looked a little disgusted at me, but he went to a cabinet and took out another jumbo screwdriver and handed it to me. He was shaking his head as he did it.
I said thank you, and I went down the escalator and out of the store into the parking lot.
It was still freezing cold, and my trunk still wouldn’t open.
I put my key back into the trunk lock and put the screwdriver under the trunk lid like a crowbar and I pushed down on it, and again the heavy duty screwdriver snapped in two pieces, just like the first one had done.
The next day, the temperature went up, to about 40 degrees and my trunk lid popped open, just like always did.
              
   

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