Ten years ago, I received a letter from a man named Bob Shotwell who lived in a small town in Minnesota. He knew that I liked old cars from watching me on television. And he wanted to give me one.

He recalled that he asked his father for a car as he was about to graduate from high school in the early 1930s. But his dad replied that if he wanted a car, he should build one. So, 17-year-old Bob scrounged parts and made his own car. It was a little three-wheeled coupe powered by a 77.2-cu.-in. four-cylinder 1931 Indian motorcycle engine. Bob called it Philbert the Puddle Jumper. He and his brother, Edward, made headlines in local newspapers in the Northwest when they drove it on a 6000-plus-mile jaunt. He told me that he eventually racked up 150,000 miles on it.

Bob Shotwell went on to a career as a pilot for Northwest Airlines, retiring in 1975. He married and raised two children--and his little coupe was always an important part of the family’s life.

But at age 82, he was afraid that the car would end up being torn apart by motorcycle guys for its precious Indian engine. He didn’t want that to happen. So, he said he’d give me Philbert as long as I promised that I wouldn’t break it up.

Interestingly, the editors at Popular Mechanics sent me a copy of The Boy Mechanic, a book the magazine originally published in the 1930s and republished this year. It was aimed at boys age 8 and up. I looked at a lot of the projects. No kid today could build them. I don’t think guys in their 20s could tackle some of them. But back in the ’30s, there was no TV, no video games--some people didn’t even have a radio. So, kids developed the skills to create their own neat stuff. Bob Shotwell was obviously a child of that era.