When Accessorizing Makes Sense POWER OPTIONS BECOME MORE APPEALING AS WE GROW OLDER By Frank Adkins
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hen I was small, I looked up to my father, and I saw him as the pinnacle of strength. It seemed he could lift just about anything, and he could remove my bicycle tires from the rims with his bare fingers. I know most of us regarded our fathers in a similar manner, but as I got older, I realized my father really was stronger than most other men. When he was in his early forties, he was diagnosed with arthritis in his shoulders. Even so, his shoulder pain didn’t seem to slow him down or curb his choice of activities. He still cut and split firewood on the weekends, and he enjoyed woodworking when time allowed. It came as a shock one day less than 10 years later when were driving in my sister’s ’69 Dart with slow ratio manual steering, and I discovered he could no longer maneuver the car into a parking space by steering hand-over-hand. It is inevitable that our bodies will break down over time. Even so, we are living longer than ever, and most of us enjoy active lives for far longer than folks did in previous generations. But as we age, we have to make allowances for the issues that arise with our bodies. Commercials for special canes, braces, walk-in bath tubs, and chair lifts appear daily on televisions around the world. And, if we are to remain active in the car hobby, it is natural that our vehicles reflect the changes in our bodies as well.
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