They say that it's not often you get a chance to meet people you have idolized, let alone the opportunity to become friends with them.I have the fortune of being friends with an individual that not only inspired me to be creative with metal, but to also follow my vision and believe in the end before the beginning. Seeing the potential in inatimate objects and people alike.
On a dark dirt road covered with rocks and holes I sped along in my father's pickup. It was a late Friday evening just past the edge of town and I was heading straight for adultecent behavior. Crammed in the cab with several friends and clearly pushing the limits of my two years of practical driving experience. I was in nirvana.
However I quickly found that I wasn't alone on this dusty dirt trail and even more rapidly coming to the realization that I wasn't going as fast as I thought I was. So like the old song "I pushed the needle to a hundred and ten" which off road meant forty.
Those lights kept getting brighter and the fear of a trip to the county jail kept growing greater. In an instant they where upon us, lighting the cab up like close encounters of the third kind.
Then as fast as they arrived they veered off into the brush, reappearing over my right shoulder like the white wale, was a late sixties Ford pick up. Much taller then my steed adorned with shocks through the bed and rollcage, it just floated outside the window for only a moment.
Then it sank down in the rear, raring at extension in the front and with a burst of sound and acceleration, bounded down onto the trail in front of me and was gone into a cloud of dust.
I just coasted, thinking to myself that there is more to the world then I had seen, more to the experience.
Years past and that truck floated in and out of my sights, spotting it around town, along with several other vehicles of a distinct flavor of form and function.
Years past and some of the details began to fade, but the effect that moment had never waned. I would always aspire to have that level of craftsmanship, something with the potential to make that kind of a impression on society.
Skills always take longer to arrive then the dreams and desires. Having had my share of the dreams, I sought at a time to build something that was distinctly my own. Something that would not be confused for anyone else's in the parking lot or anywhere else.
I was introduced to a gentleman that had the very particular set of skills I was lacking. And after many bench races and tails of dust, I learned that this gentleman was the very person driving that truck so many years before, the very person that had set my imagination down the path that would eventually lead me directly to his door step.
After many years of conversation and several projects later the idol is human, lives in a house like everyone else, picks up the grandchildren from school and enjoys an early retirement.
The white wale however is still out there, somewhere, lurking, haunting someone else, or just decaying in a pasture. Either way, it's legacy remains Intact, so some twenty years later I sat down and had a conversation about things with it's creator.
Mr. Terry Wattenburger works when time and health allows from an unassuming detached garage, set back from the house on an unassuming street. There is no sign hanging on the door, no little tray holding business cards.
T.W. has built a reputation not on flashy signs and ads, there's no big "Hey! Look at me!" anything, for that matter, just having the funds doesn't garrentee that you'll get on the list. It's not needed, craftsmanship is it's own marketing tool, and the project sometimes out ways the price. Not to say things don't have to be done, sometimes having the skills pays the bills.
I wanted to take the chance to pick his brain to see how he got to be at this point in his life and some of the steps and stumbles along the way.To get a since of how he got here and what motivated him, I asked about his youth, how he got into welding and the motivations behind it. I anticipated something like mine, saw something that moved him to create.
Turns out that assuming is everything thing they say it is. Come to find that building motorless gokarts and punishing them into pieces and rebuilding them in grade school was where his journey began.
Jumping into the work force seemed to find him continually around or near a welder of some kind, picking up knowledge and continually mastering the craft. And with the ingenuity of youth, a Scout and a Pinto, his craft was under way.
It's said that form follows function, that theory is stopped at the door when entering Terry's shop only in the since that it doesn't have to look like everyone else's cookie cutter projects. He says he begins with an idea in his sleep, then maybe a sketch or two to help visualize it, then it's left to the organic process of what actually looks right on a project.
I once lamented on my hesitation to begin a certain facet of a project, he said "it's only metal, if it doesn't work, cut it off and try again"
Inspiration seems to come from enjoying time with the family and a customer pleased with the work. When they are surprised to find that something could ride that nice or fit that well.
I asked what project would he most want to go back to, that Ford was his choice. However not because something was left on the table, merely the experience and technology that has been garnered in the last twenty years.
His dream build was a bit surprising, as with all the skill in the world it comes back to that character and athsteetic, the just left of center that exemplifies his personality. A mini big "Oly" clone on a Bronco II chassis, I had to ask twice just to make sure I heard him correctly.
When I asked what he thought his legacy would be, he didn't much seem to care about that, seemed more concerned about what the grandchildren where having for lunch, leaving those accolades to people like me.
Sometimes it's not about the paychecks or applause, just the craft and the art of achieving it.
