I enjoy picking locks… That may sound like a strange hobby, but if you search it on YouTube you’ll get thousands of hits. It has quite a fanbase. I developed quite a talent for locksport by the time I was 16, and could pick just about anything – anything that is found on your average house or shop, that is – but a Multilock or Medco; although, I had succeeded with the latter after almost an hour of sweaty, hand-cramping work. I have always found my hand-made picks to be of better quality than the Southord, Sparrows, or even Peterson picks I have invested in, so I typically resort to those. If I’m trying to pick a smaller, thinner lock…

I was only 12 at the time. I was playing in the scrap yard with some of my best buddies. My father was good at all different kinds of things, but flourished on vehicles and motorized machines of any type. He was always hauling in a new broken down truck, or an old busted up washing machine, and had no problem with letting my buddies and me play in the scrap piles that lay in the back yard. We were out one day just messing around, shooting Jon’s new BB gun, which he had just been given for his 13th birthday. We were all eager for our turn to shoot the beautiful Red Rider, so we scrounged up some old…