Popular Science Monthly -
July 1955 p87
The Life and Times of Gus
Wilson
Scan of original article (pdf format)
(continued from page 87)
are usually noisier,
and as there are more parts in the valve mechanism, there is more to replace
when things wear."
Henry is glutton for
information about controversial issues. "Do you think four-wheel
brakes are safer, Uncle?" "Don't worry your head over four wheel
brakes. I've fixed a powerful lot of brakes, and as far as I can see
there isn't much in this four-wheel business as compared with one real good
pair of brakes on the rear wheels. Four-wheel brakes are fine in
theory but but durned few of the outfits that I've looked over were working
right, and on the low-priced cars I'm inclined to think that the
disadvantages just about make up for their advantages."
(Readers distressed
by this suggestion of old fogeyism should remember that in 1926 four wheel
brakes were a battleground among Detroit authorities, too.)
Gus tells Henry to
"stay away from the accessories. All you need-at least to start
with-are front and rear bumpers, a rear view mirror, a windshield wiper and
a spare tire!"
Tender
heart.
Though the years did not age Gus Wilson, they did soften his didactic
tendency. He still lectured patrons mercilessly, but no longer backed
them into a corner with brandished incivilities. It became evident
that there was a tender heart beneath the gruff harangues.
Occasionally high drama justified an exception, as when he saved
John Ensley from a monoxide death:
"Ensley stirred feebly. 'Where am I?' he
murmured. 'You came darn near not being here at all, you crazy dumb-bell!'
snorted Gus. 'You haven't any more sense than a billy-goat!' "
Though brusque, Gus is by no means obtuse about personal relationships.
Once when a woman crashed resoundingly into a
parked car in front of the Model Garage, he displayed a perceptiveness
unexpected from a bachelor:
"Seems to me it isn't all your fault, Mrs. Barnes. In the first place
I notice that you haven't any cushion at your back, and as you are not as
tall as your husband, you can't reach the pedals properly or push them hard
enough. Then it's always bad for a man to teach his wife how to drive.
No wife like to play the dumb-bell before her husband, so she won't admit
she doesn't understand everything he tells her the first time. She
makes mistakes. He becomes impatient or sarcastic and the war is on."
Yes
Virginia.
Persistent readers have occasionally pursued the question of just how real
is Gus, anyway? (Probably some of them were, as children, the kind of tots
who axed the cuckoo clock to see what the little bird ate.) To calm their
anxieties, the magazine twice (1)
(2) ran articles...(continued
on page 202)
