Cars and More

Last fall I took a class through Davis Adult Education on basic auto mechanics. I was driving a new Honda Element that didn’t need an oil change yet or a whole lot else but I spent many evenings hunkered over other people’s engines, holding flashlights while they changed THEIR oil, adjusted timers, and so on.

Our instructor was Dave Egolf, a slight bearded man in a T-shirt whose attitude toward cars was more zen than not. He taught us to keep a car journal, where to buy quality filters for cheap, why you should buy good quality gas, and what an alternator does.

Dave is on the front cover of today’s Davis Enterprise (no online photo available). He’s the principal of the King High School here in Davis. The photo shows him in a suit, handing a white carnation to a graduating senior: sometimes Davis still behaves like a small town.