SPRING IN THE GARAGE

Evening Star, Issue 22461, 5 October 1936, Page 13

SPRING IN THE GARAGE

When did you last give your garage a spring cleanP writes “Contact,” in the ‘ Motor.’ Or, having begun it, are you sorry you did? For that is how homes arc wrecked. Motorists arc incorrigible hoarders of “ junk.” “ It might come in useful one day, you know,” or “ It ought to fetch a bob or two; I won’t throw it away,” are sentiments fraught with peril to domestic felicity. You take off a couple of tyres with the treads worn smooth and consider that they might come in handy as spares, or perhaps they could bo retreaded. Discarding that awful piece of tool-kit ironmongery known as a jack, instead of hurling it into the nearest pond you put it on one side. You hate the thing, but supposing your next car was not fitted with four-wheel jacks and you wanted to raise all four wheels at once? You buy another carburettor, and consider that amongst your is somebody who will give you 5s for the'old one. Sparking plugs that have failed—of course, all they need is a clean and they will do when you soil the car. The pump you forgot to hand over when selling the last car, the battery that might come in useful as a spare if it were overhauled; fused lamp bulbs, odd tools, oil-cans, grease guns —so the pile grows. Then the inevitable reckoning with the. household goddessses, or you will, find that your garago is not large enough to hold a car as well. Then out they go and the trouble commences. Maybe you will not have a voice in the matter. The very things you most particularly wanted to keep disappear. Probably traded for an aspidistra, while you have been wondering how to raise the wind on them; and ■with them goes that fog lamp which you bought only a few weeks ago and have not had time to fit—for women have no soul in such matters and no discrimination. Words . . . threats to go back to mother. Worse, warning to plant mother on to inconsiderate, brutal husband, who puts higher value on two patched inner tubes kept for summer bathing excursions than on simple, trusting, confiding, loving wife. The strong, silent type train their wives to a better understanding and never permit a protest if the walnut sideboard is turned into a work-bench, or half an engine reposes on the settee. But take my advice, and when yon take bits off your car, throw the darned things away. There are times when I wish I could follow mv own aduco.