Tinkering Belles with Tamara Robertson
Tinkering Belles with Tamara Robertson
Tinkering Belles - Caroline - Great Race Edition
Do you love to get wrenchin, road rally racing, storytelling and general Maker Shop Talk?
If so, join Tamara Robertson (Mythbusters, Seekers of Science) as she revs up the fun in this all new mini-season dedicated to the Hemming's Great Race and the amazing team of Trailblazing Creators assembled by Riley's Rebuilds!
As a shout-out to Race Sponsor Peak, this episode kicks off with a Tech Talk about Windshield Wipers before Tamara sits down with Vintage Car Restorer, Trailblazer and Maker Extraordinaire Caroline ( @reelCaroline ) of HHWheels!
Topics they cover include (but are surely not limited to):
- Windshield Wipers
- Peak Automotive
- Vintage Cars
- Commercial Fishing
- HH Wheels
- 1969 Fairlane
- Old Dragsters
- Riley's Rebuilds
- Jessi Combs Foundation
- Never Say Die
- SEMA
- VW Beetle
.. and so much more
As we dig into Season 3's 33rd episode of Tinkering Belles you're surely not going to want to miss it!
So join in on Tamara's adventure as a Maker as she works to amplify the BAMF Females Behind the Builds one interview at a time!
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If you enjoyed the show join in on the Maker adventure with Tamara and her guests on the Tinkering Belles Instagram page.
You can follow Caroline's adventures here, here, and here:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/reelcaroline/
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@HHWheels
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@reelcaroline
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hhwheels
Music for this Episode was provided by Bill Trowell Music. Visit BillTrowellMusic.com to hear more and to subscribe to Bill's Patreon, where he covers favorite showtunes, movie themes, classic rock and jazz, as well as requests from Patron's.
Greetings, shopmates, and welcome to Tinkering Belles, a show about DIY, design, and all things hands-on. The sky's the limit as we talk props, metalwork, cosplay, woodwork, leather, electronics, and so much more. I'm Tamara Robertson, your host, so strap on your tool belts because we're about to get into some skill sharing, y'all.
Tamara Robertson:Today, I'm going to be joined by a maker who's teamed up with her dad to bring you all things drenching. I don't want to give away too much, but this maker is giving new life to old cars. So if that doesn't make you want to stick around and hear more, then you might be at the wrong podcast. But first, let's go ahead and have our tech talk of the day. So we're going to be talking all about the Hemming Great race and all of the brands that helped us survive whatever weather we hit on the road. Brands like Peak, who donate tons of great gear for the fair lane, including new windshield wipers. So let's back it up. Where did windshield wipers get their start?
Tamara Robertson:The first manually operated windshield wiper was patented by Mary Anderson in 1903, after observing a streetcar driver struggling to see through a rain-covered windshield. Early wipers were operated by hand levers inside the car. Motorized versions didn't appear until 1917, when the Tri-Continental Corporation developed the first automatic system. In the 1940s, vacuum-powered wipers were common but could slow or stop entirely when drivers accelerated, a challenge that led to electric wipers becoming standard by the 1960s. Modern wipers use high durability blades, aerodynamic arms, and even rain-sensing smart tech, especially in performance or endurance vehicles. Peaks wiper blades are built for all weather visibility and long-lasting performance, which is crucial when racing a vintage car cross-country through everything from desert dust to summer storms.
Tamara Robertson:Well, that's it for your Tech Talk. As always, you can join in on the conversation with my maker friends and me on the Tinkering Bells Instagram and X pages. Just search for Bells Tinkering, hit follow, and share your DIY adventures together with us. Have a tool you want to learn about? Let me know, and it may be featured in a future episode. Tell us what you liked, what you hated, or possibly even what we missed.
Tamara Robertson:So now we're going to be getting into the main event, and I'm so excited to introduce you to our next maker. So drum roll, please. Presenting Caroline. Caroline, thanks for joining me. How are you?
Caroline:I am wonderful. Thanks for having me.
Tamara Robertson:Yeah. So I like to start by asking where people can find you, follow you, and give them a little bit of a glimpse of what they can see when they go there.
Caroline:Cool, yeah. Well, I am very fortunate to be able to work with one of the most incredible people I've ever met in my life, which is conveniently also my father. We have a YouTube channel together called HH Wheels Productions, and that's That's our main passion project. That's where you can find all of our shenanigans of rebuilding, restoring, rescuing classic cars. And then we're also over on Instagram. He's at HHWheels underscore HHWheels. And then I'm at ReelCaroline. But primarily you can find us on YouTube. That's where most of the fun ensues.
Tamara Robertson:I love it. I love it. And we are definitely going to get into that. But first, I'm a superhero scientist and all superheroes have origins. So we had not met before the race. We have had the joy of getting to spend the race together. And I found out lots of fun details about you. But can you share with the audience your gearhead origin story? And I might ask you to rewind a little bit further and start on water just because of things I know.
Caroline:Yeah, well, guilty as charged. I've been pretty fortunate to always work in a male dominated industry. It's kind of, kind of been my thing. I've always had good guy friends. So in high school, I really got heavily into charter boat fishing. That's where I think some of my mechanical eagerness is what I would call it kind of came from. We'd work on stuff as a first mate all the time. So it was kind of like fix this, fix that. So it was kind of in my name. And then eventually, I had bought my first brand new vehicle and it turned into this wonderful thing until one day I wrecked it, which was kind of a blessing in disguise because out of necessity, I obviously needed something to daily drive to get to and from work. So at the time, I didn't have much money to my name. So I bought a 1969 Ford Fairlane Fastback, which conveniently was probably the worst car I think I've ever owned to this day. Yeah. But, you know, for a whole year, year and a half, I was fixing it every single day before I got to work. Like that was literally the only way you would find me at work is because I fixed whatever broke. So unfortunately, that craziness turned into something really fortunate and my job, my passion, and I found my love for mechanical anything at the time. And what really got me into the whole classic car side of it was not just driving one, but really talking to people about... their story. Like people would come up to me in a parking lot or at the grocery store. Like I would just be so off guard. I'm just like this Joe Schmo walking around doing my normal thing. And someone would talk to me like they knew me because they saw I got out of this classic car and they tell me about their first kiss or whatever. you know that's the kind of car they drove in high school or they just it had nothing to do with my particular vehicle it was just something that was like the ultimate icebreaker is what I took it as and eventually I was just like this is really cool like the automotive community is really neat and conveniently at the same time I was kind of helping my dad turn a wrench here and there on his hobby projects and then we're like why aren't we documenting this why aren't we making this a thing and it was kind of like well you know one day when I have grandkids and I was like yeah you know I have a background in graphic So, yeah. It kind of worked too because he had this really awesome vision for everything we did. And then one thing led to another. Here we are five years later. It's a full-fledged business. We've had a lot of ups and downs. And I got to say, it's probably been the most epic ride of my life. I can't speak for him on that, but I think he agrees too. And we get to do cool things like the Great Race, like we just finished up. And now we're back in the shop, working on another car and potentially buying another one in another week or so.
Tamara Robertson:That was actually going to be my next question - was vintage cars and working with your dad. So you shared a little bit about how it got started and how it's going. I feel like just being around your dad during the great race, there's been so many hilarious moments, everything from, you know, the bet that led to dad and you're not having eyebrows to just all of the moments. Like, What are some of your favorite, you know, vintage car meets dad meets YouTube in this process story?
Caroline:The cool thing about what we do is, yeah, okay, we do it on such a public platform that sometimes it's hard to ground yourself a little bit because you're like trying to make the best story and really put out a good image so that these people who are viewing your content really understand what you're trying to say. And It's kind of crazy when you come across people who have no idea what social media is, and you still come across those people, especially in the classic car world. There's this one guy in particular who, this whole adventure we went on has stuck with me since we did it. So it was about, I think almost three or four years ago now, my dad was looking at a front-engine nostalgia-style dragster. This thing will probably never... ever pass tech but it was just such a cool thing and my dad's like well y'all take the motor out of it and um you know hang the thing on the wall like all these ideas and i'm like you're insane why are we buying a dragster that we can't even race you know so i was like you know screw it whatever and it's about four or five hours away from here we hop in the car we go and we pull up to this you know, unsuspecting kind of barn in the small neighborhood. And this older guy walks out and his name's Fred. And we were having such a hard time getting ahold of him because he literally still had like a 1990s flip phone. There's nothing wrong with flip phones, but this guy literally, he will never use social media if he can help it. But we were walking around our shop and just like looking at all these things. And it was like, it's like opening a history book. And what was really cool is he's done so many different things. I mean, we started from Ground Zero, which was when he went into the military. I can't exactly remember the specific name for it, but he was stationed, I believe, somewhere in Florida at the time. He was Air Force, and he was responsible for flying the airplanes that had basically like a receiver that would send information from the Apollo space missions from space to that airplane back to the ground. So he was involved in, I think, four Apollo missions, I believe. He even has the patches that they would get from... military like every time they complete an omission and i just thought it was the coolest thing ever like yes the cars are magnificent don't get me wrong but the lineage and the history behind these people before they even got into classic cars and then conveniently he met the love of his life not too long after that and they've been together for probably 50 plus years which is adorable And they got into racing sprint cars and she got into racing sprint cars and they got so competitive. So he ended up building cars for her to compete. And he would just kind of like piddle around. And, you know, now this guy's probably 85 and he's still out there turning a wrench. There's no AC in his shop. It's like he knows everything. If he doesn't have it, he makes it. And it's just meeting people like that. That's just one story of many that just... makes what we do so much better and so much more rewarding because yes, it is cool to connect with people online, but really what we're trying to do is not only spread our knowledge and spread information on classic cars to hopefully not have the hobby die on the vine, but also bring these people's knowledge and information back to a relevant state because these guys are Didn't have Google. These guys had books. They had word of mouth. They had the figure it out school of hard knocks kind of thing, which I don't know. I love. And sometimes it is nice to disconnect from social media like that and really ground yourself. And then the cool thing is, is at the time, I think We could have been better on our production, but the great thing is I still talk to him to this day and he's always like, well, if you guys want to come back and shoot more content, like he's all about it now. It's really cool. And we can kind of introduce what we do are like new age style of things to his old fashioned ways. And it's just, I don't know. That's just such a cool part about classic cars is you meet people like that all the time, even just at car shows.
Tamara Robertson:This has been really valuable and you're right. That advice that you get from that older generation and that you're able to then give to the younger generation is so valuable. Is there any lessons that you've learned along the way coming into either, you know, vintage road, motorsport or working on YouTube or just staying authentic to yourself that you want the next generation to, to kind of hear?
Caroline:I mean, I'm going to sound really generic when I say this, but trust the process and trust your gut, especially when it comes to social media. Because if you feel like something's wrong, it's probably wrong. Or if you feel like something you said didn't come across well or however you put yourself out there just doesn't feel right for you, it's your platform. So you can choose anything. what you want to be on there. And it's okay to like delete something because you think, I could have done this better. But I also think trusting the process because social media is upside down, backwards, sideways. It's everything other than a linear experience. And especially when it comes to classic cars, you know, I've found so many cars and I'm like, oh, I want this car so bad. And I'm like hoping and praying and I've got the cash ready. I'm ready to go. And you're waiting on somebody to reply to you. And the excitement of that is but at the same time if it's meant to be it's meant to be and i think that can carry across both social media and buying restoring whatever classic cars is um you got to have the confidence too because confidence and even faking your confidence is what will get you to better places because it's all intimidating every every bit of it's intimidating even to this day for me like Sure, I can go in and swap a motor now, no big deal. But before I got into this, I was like, wait, you can do what with what? And you can take it out this fast and all these things. And it's really easy to kind of overthink it. So trusting yourself, trusting the process and having the confidence, even though you've never done it before. You just have to be confident that you're gonna figure it out because you will. And I think it's cool because with social media, It's such a new thing. And then classic cars is such an old thing. So it's kind of... It's kind of weird. It's kind of backwards, but you can kind of have fun with it and truly make it your own one way or another.
Tamara Robertson:Speaking ofputting the past and the present together, we all just got to experience the great race as the creator race team, where we were bringing social media and all forms, everything from Instagram to YouTube and beyond into this like vintage era. So it's, I'm assuming that because you're in that vintage world, the Great Race was something you had heard of before. Was it something you had considered racing in before? And what were your initial thoughts when the bat signal went out for all of us to come and join?
Caroline:Yeah, that was something that both my dad and I had on our bucket list of things. It was just a matter of waiting for the right time. Because as I'm sure you can understand this too, you can prepare for it and you can also not prepare for it. So the beauty of it for us was like, if the opportunity strikes, we'll take it. And that's kind of what happened when Riley and Dane reached out talking about the great race. I was like, wait, how, you know, like at the time we really thought it was kind of like this whole taboo kind of thing. Cause there is a lot of prestige behind it. There are a lot of people who take it very seriously and, I mean, Coker, Hemings, everybody. I mean, they spend so much time preparing for this. It's something you really can't necessarily take lightly. So we're just kind of like, hey, if it happens and again, it happened and it just turned into this like. perfectly planned and unplanned kind of thing. Um, and it was a lot of work, especially on our end, but I'm really happy that we pulled through. And the fact that we did it was such a great team. There are a lot of things that I know we would have done a little differently in terms of timing and scheduling, but you know, that's the joy of it. You just have to figure it out. And the great thing about the great race is everybody's in something pre 1974, 75. And, um, It's kind of humbling when you're broken down on the side of the road. It really shows the character of classic cars. So I thought it was really fun that all of you guys got to experience that because that's what we get to do on a daily basis. And that is part of what our mission is, is to bring that essence of classic cars to everybody.
Tamara Robertson:Yeah. And so you kicked off this episode by talking about having prior owned a fair lane that you had to work on every single day to get it to run. And so we definitely got that experience on the race. So do you want to tell the audience a little bit about how we went from one fair lane to the other and how basically AJ drills became a sponsor because of it?
Caroline:Yeah, I can't speak too much to what happened to the first one, but unfortunately, it was no bueno. Five, six days before Riley Dane and my father were supposed to take off on the Great Race with the first Fairlane, didn't really work out because that Fairlane decided to just... I think something went wrong internally with the motor. I can't speak too much to that. So we got a phone call from Riley and Dane ahead of time. And they're like, Hey, you know, we found this car. Mind you, we're probably eight days out from leaving. Can you, you know, our car's broken. Can you go get this car? Like they had all these ideas. Okay. And this car was about two hours from us in South Carolina. They're down in Florida. So it's probably eight to 10 hours. We're like, you know what? We can go get it and, you know, we can figure it out. And Riley and Dane, I think sprung a few things on us that we didn't fully think we were prepared for or were prepared for, but we made the most of it. We went and picked up this other 66 Fairlane, which is a fastback, which was my personal preference. But anyways, this... Okay. Running and driving car. It was finished for the most part interiors there. Um, it ran and drove. Okay. Um, I figured, you know, we could, we could get this rolling. No problem. And my dad was 50, 50 on board in a perfect world. We may have taken something else, but you know, Riley and Dane spent so much time really planning this and making sure that, you know, the car looked like this and it was representing the Jessi Combs Foundation. So I understood the continuity of putting another 66 Fairlane together. It was just wild that this one happened to be on Marketplace and conveniently the guy we bought it from was leaving a day before to move out of the state. So it kind of worked out like in kind of a serendipity Um, we brought it home and we're talking to Dane on the way home. He's like, yeah, we want to paint it. And we're just like, we have to leave in four days. Like, why do you want to paint a car? Like, that's kind of unheard of just because if you want to do it right, you really got to prep it. You really had to spend some time on it, but. We're like, all right, whatever. So the moment we get back in the shop, start taping all the trim off, scrape it, or not scraping, but sanding the whole thing down and just got it ready for paint. And then by the time that was done, we rolled it down to our buddy's shop down the street, got it in paint. And then that was when the heat was really on because, okay, now we have a car that looks the part, but it will not run and drive under its own power. And there were a lot of mechanical things that were just so wrong with the car to begin with that... You really couldn't tell we're wrong with it until you dug into it. So we spent, I think we ended up pushing the trip. So I think we spent almost six days tussling with that thing, getting it to run and drive right. And first it was brakes and then it was carburetor and then it was intake. It was just all these different things. And you know, As much as I would have liked to change some of the things that we would have done in the shop, perhaps maybe dialed it back a little bit, it did make for a good story and a great adventure for everybody because I swear we worked on that car, what, six of the nine days?
Tamara Robertson:Yeah. I learned a lot.
Caroline:But that's the great thing about classic cars is... I've always learned by doing, I have no background in classic cars other than just working as an apprentice, like sweeping the floors and shops, like doing that and then just doing it. And I think that's kind of the spirit of classic cars too, because yeah, there's manuals and there's classes and stuff like that, but it's really something you kind of just have to figure out on your own and build the confidence to do, which I thought was really fun to watch all the girls. Yes, We all did struggle and we all did want to send that thing down the road a few times, but everybody made the most of it and everybody probably learned that they don't want to own a fair lane, but we had a good time. And again, it made for some good memories. I mean, the girls pushing across the finish line one day, the day I first got there, the hood made it over the finish line, but the car didn't. I mean, it was a unique adventure. I think it's really cool though that we've done it that way because i mean where's the fun enough perfectly good running and driving car you know i mean great we could be a little more competitive and it would be fun but like i don't know this is just way more fun in my opinion regardless of the struggles that we through
Tamara Robertson:absolutely . we definitely earned that never say die award for sure so we've been talking a little bit about you know Riley and Dane, the Dad-anger. I love to ask everyone on the race, like, how did you first meet Riley? And, you know, what's kept you guys bonded since
Caroline:Oh, well, the funny thing is, is the only times we've ever, like, physically come in contact has been at SEMA for, I think... almost, it's got to be on three years now, something like that. But I've caught up with her and Dane many, many times at SEMA and so with my dad as well. And we've gone to parties, we've had conversations and like, we've kind of talked about different ideas or concepts on what we could do in a collaborative sense. And this kind of happened by accident. Really The whole concept here was just, hey, why don't you drive your truck trailer in the car up here? And they were looking to have an RV and conveniently we have one. So it was like, we'll hook up your trailer and the car and we'll take the RV and we'll just go up north and it'll be a support vehicle. And then it kind of grew into that whole really deep collaborative thing that kind of happened on accident um we've just communicated though over social media over the years and um talked about different partnerships and stuff like that so it's been like a good relationship but kind of more of a working relationship and a little less personal i think also being a father-daughter and then another father-daughter that's also been kind of a connection that we've just instinctually had where it was just kind of like It's nice to see somebody else doing it at this capacity because a lot of the people who are in the automotive industry are more independent or they work with their husband or just a significant other in general or another kid, but not really on the father level. daughter side of things. And it's something that, you know, Riley's passionate about, I'm passionate about, which is bringing more women into this industry. So it kind of just was this very natural, like ebb and flow kind of relationship that just kind of happened.
Tamara Robertson:I love that. And so Girl Dads is something that, you know, the Jessi Combs Foundation, big supporters of, you know, Jessi's dad was always at his raises along with her mom. But we we actually got on the great race to follow in the tread marks. So you were talking about having to very quickly paint a car. And that is because of the charity partner that we had, which was the Jessi Combs Foundation. Jessi, the audience has learned with the Grand Marshal in 2016, and is all about empowering, inspiring and educating that next generation of trailblazer. And so that term trailblazer is one that the foundation doesn't throw around lightly, but definitely felt every young woman on this creator race and body. So before you went into this, did you feel like you were a trailblazer and what does that mean to you to be carrying the torch and the vintage automotive space for women?
Caroline:The thing is with that is I have two different schools of thought because, you know, when you're in your own place, you know, you're in your shop, you're doing your thing. You're kind of just like, And like I said earlier, I'm just a Joe Schmo. I'm just like working on my things. I'm making it happen. I'm doing what I love. And then I have the superpower of being able to share that with a lot of people. So Trailblazer is... is a term that I like to think I carry, but at the same time, I will always think I need to earn in a way because I never want to get too comfortable in one place. For instance, like, yes, I want to be myself on social media and I want to share that to people because when they meet me at car shows, like I don't want to be a completely different person, but I also want to make sure that I'm understanding that I always need to keep bettering myself. And yeah, I don't know, when I put a specific title on myself like that, I don't take that lightly, I guess is what I'm trying to say. When I got to meet all the other women, like I have kind of in a way felt like I've always known these ladies because social media, but at the same time, like really talking to y'all in person and getting to know everybody and like people talking to me about, you know, wanting to get more to know more about YouTube and stuff like that. Like to me, again, I'm just, I'm here, I'm making it happen. Like to me, I'm not that special, but it is really cool to have other women who are either in the same age bracket or doing the same thing as me In a sense, look at me as someone of a role model. That is really neat to me because when I go to car shows, I'm very fortunate to be able to connect with a lot of people, a lot of fathers and daughters, a lot of young girls who come up to me and talk to me. And that... Both of those things to me embody Trailblazer. So I'd like to say I think I am. But again, I don't ever want to get too comfortable with that. Does that make sense?
Tamara Robertson:That does make sense. So and you're talking about getting to meet these these women at these races. And so we had such a healthy mixture of both very young and young. a much older generation of women that we were able to interface on the race. Obviously in vintage, you probably have that experience a lot. Do you find that the older generation of women share the different perspective than the younger ones that are looking up to you?
Caroline:Yeah there's a good 50-50 blend of kind of great and weirdness with it. I try to look at things, especially different generations kind of, and I, this may sound like a bad term, but like in the Jessi way, like she just always had this very open mind. And when I talk to the older generations, I like to be more open-minded because I have to think about how different the time was for them. I have to think about their perspective in general. So yeah. I kind of just like to listen more with them rather than when I'm talking to younger girls. They want to listen to me, but I want to listen to them. And I've been very fortunate to talk to a lot of really influential and very strong women, like Shirley Muldowney is a prime example. But even women who are just out there doing it. I've had the spectrum of just the older lady who... would work on her car out of necessity. And then I've had the ones who were like, I'm doing it because I'm doing it. And there was this really cool one I actually got to meet on the gradient race too, who came and picked us up the first day we were broken down. And conveniently with Audrey, Audrey was kind of like a little afraid of her. She was this very sweet German lady. And you might've met her.
Tamara Robertson:Yeah, I did in the bathroom
Caroline:Yeah. She was great. You know, I was like, okay, fine. I'll sit in the front seat. Y'all can sit in the back. I'm like, this is a hard shell to crack. I'm going to crack it, you know? So I started talking to her and she's just very like German nature, very blunt. And I'm like, kind of loving it because she's very matter of fact, which made talking to her really interesting. And she started telling me about her classic cars and she lives in Seattle, but she has somebody in Detroit who stores the car and she loves driving it. cross-country by herself she has a husband that she loves but she's like it's way more fun by myself um and then she was telling me about her volkswagen beetle because conveniently i own one and she's like yeah i love to drive it topless like she's just like very carefree and then she's very much the artist type but i didn't really want to ask her what her occupation was and she's like I'm an artist. And she was talking about how people give her so much flack about how artists don't make money, you know, starving artist theory. And she's like, do I make a living? No, I am living like her perspective on that. I was like, you know, hell yeah, this is what I needed to hear today. And I don't know. It's just, it's cool because again, you do get to see both sides of it. I've had a little negativity, I think, more from the older generations. I think it's more out of a jealous side of things rather than actually some sort of malicious take on it. So I don't really let it bother me too much. I think that kind of comes with anything generational related. You're always going to have one of those. But it is really cool. I do find... I find a need or more of a want to impress the older generation more because I'm like, I want to carry this torch, but in an admirable way. And I want to speak well. I want to come across well. And I want to make sure that I'm not doing this in vain and also have a little bit of recognition for being good. able to carry that torch if you know what i mean like really have them in a way be proud of me even though i just met these people like 10 minutes prior so it's cool but i think the great race was a really great place to meet a lot of women women like that because there were a lot of them
Tamara Robertson:there were a lot of them i was actually very surprised because i think in watching the list episode with jesse you didn't see as many as we actually saw on the race which was really incredible And so you talked about the Jessi viewpoint and you rocked the mustache, which I can't wait for you to get the actual tattoo of. Having been to Sina a few times, was it something, were you ever able to actually interact with Jessi or meet Jessi before her passing? Or what was your Jessi story?
Caroline:Unfortunately, no. My dad... And I think this was right before we really got started with the YouTube channel. My dad was just at SEMA after hours with a friend of ours who had like after hour privileges at SEMA. And he's like looking at this car, I can't remember what it was, like upside down and sideways and like really, you know, crawling under it. And the guy he's with has no care in the world about cars. He's there for networking. And my dad starts asking a question and this female voice starts answering. And he's just like, you know, asking these questions, not really paying attention. to who's talking to him and he looks up and it's Jessi at SEMA talking to him and I can't speak to that story as well as he can the way he tells it almost makes me cry every time he says it and he starts crying when he tells the story but when my dad and I who's not my biological father but when my dad and I started working together he kind of told me about this story and just kind of talked about her in it almost seemed like a very simple way but it kind of came across as she had so much grace and charisma. And I was just like really curious, like who in the Sam heck is this person? Right. So I spend a little time looking into her and unfortunately at this time she'd already passed away. I just am like sitting here. I'm like beside myself thinking this is how, this is how I want to be portrayed to people. I want to come across with this much grace, this much integrity, but also have the experience to go behind it. And I, The thing is, and I'm sure you can understand this as well, when you're in such a public space, unfortunately, not everybody's like that. They portray themselves as that, but they aren't. And I was kind of suspicious. I was like, I really feel attracted to her somehow in kind of like an almost spiritual way. But I was like, I'm not going to look too far into it. I was very reserved. And just over time, I just watched more movies. Like, All Girls Garage, she was on the list. Like, all these different things you can find Jessi on. And I'm just like, this... is how I hope I can be. This is how I hope I can leave my mark on the world and bring more women into something that is so amazing. And it doesn't have to be classic cars. It can be working on diesels. Heck, it doesn't even have to be working on cars. You can be a welder, a fabricator. I mean, anything, refinisher, it doesn't matter. But it's really this... amazing and kind of crazy wild thing working with your hands and the way it connects you with people and what you're doing and I've also never really been that girly of a girl so when I saw Jessi I'm like oh hell yeah like she gets down and dirty you don't have to look pretty all the time you can be a badass and still look like there were just so many things to her that just like made sense to me and that's when i really felt like i could be myself and i could be okay with learning who i am and doing this because growing up i was not exposed to any of this so that's kind of my origin story with jesse uh i guess it is partially my dad's fault but um he feels so strongly about women being in the industry too so that's really aided in my whole jesse journey i guess you can call it
Tamara Robertson:so i have one question i ask everyone that comes on the podcast and that is if you could have a superpower what would it be and why
Caroline:oh goodness that's a question
Tamara Robertson:it tells a lot about a person what what power they say I'm just saying
Caroline:yeah oh my goodness I don't I don't know the thing is I'm so happy and pleased with everything I've achieved and there's something I heard the other day that's like Thank God for all the no's and the closed doors, because sure, it'd be great to have heard a million yeses, but without those, I wouldn't be where I am now. And I wouldn't have the knowledge that I have now. If it comes to like a superpower, it's probably going to be something really remedial because I don't think I want to like, improve upon anything crazy I'm sure when I was a kid I was like being invisible would be cool but I think now it'd be like remembering wire diagrams that's such a nerd thing to say but my superpower probably be like expert at wiring or something like that because a lot of times that's my main job so if I could be better at it or like I even thought about getting a wire diagram tattooed on my arm um yeah i know that sounds so nerdy but just like the power of like remembering things like having a legitimate photographic memory would would be pretty cool
Tamara Robertson:that would be extremely valuable i feel like especially like you're saying like when you're actually on the floor like working on your machinery being able to not have to like then go greasy hands oil covered flipping through books or trying to like get your phone to work you know just Yeah,
Caroline:imagine taking something apart and remembering how it all goes back together like that three days later and not having any extra hardware left over.
Tamara Robertson:I love it. Well, this has been so amazing. The Hemmings Great Race kicked off June 21st in St. Paul, Minnesota. and ran all the way until we hit the finish line June 29th in Irmo, South Carolina. So follow our Instagrams to live the full adventure and all things creator race as we recap tackling this iconic vintage rally road race one mile at a time. That's it for the Tinkering Belles. This episode is assembled and ready for delivery. Caroline, this has been amazing. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Tamara Robertson:I want to thank you for choosing Tinkering Belles as your user's manual for all things maker on a bi-weekly basis. If you want to continue to hear more, don't forget to rate and review this show on your podcasting app of choice as well as sharing it with your friends I look forward to seeing you next time until then don't forget to keep making
Caroline:whoa that was weird I didn't know you could do that
Tamara Robertson:that is a lot of fun