The first and last car I ever owned was the car I learned how to drive with.

It was a hand me down from pops.

In the years I owned it I managed to put some dents in it. The first dent was in the front left panel.

One day I was waiting at a red light and a gypsy...an actually gypsy with his whole family in the car looks over (he was at my right) and he says in a thick accent while moving his pointed finger back and forth between my dented panel and my face -

"Friend! I fix for you?! Your panel! Your Panel! I fix for you?!

I said "...uh, how much?"

He says "80 dollar. 80 dollar. Pull over?"

The light turns green, I pull off on a side street right by the intersection. Dude gets out, we shake hands. He shakes his head while looking at the dent and then he goes to his car and pulls out a fucking dent puller. It wasnt just any dent puller but a hammer dent puller. It works by making a hole (a HOLE) in the steel. Once the hole is made the puller operator pulls the sheet metal into place.

This is a fine way to pull a dent but the thing is that you have to make plans to fix that area immediately or else run the risk of having the exposed holes rusting.

He was going for it and with each hole (he was on the third one at that point) I kept thinking to myself "Oh shit. Oh shit. OH SHIT."

I said "Yo my man. Stop. Stop. STOP. YO MAN STOP. I dont want that"

He said "No? Look I have kid. You pay me"

Now, the thing that got me was that there was no discussion about how the work would be done. Before I could say yes or no he went to work with the puller.

We have a back and forth and I'm heated because I was 20 at the time and 80 bucks was a fuck ton of money.

Eventually we agreed to get to our cars and drive to a nearby gas station so I could grab some cash from the ATM. When I finally grabbed enough money to pay the man I could see out the corner of of my eye his grandmother in the passenger seat gesturing for me to come close.

I reluctantly handed him the money and crouched to hear the old lady better. Shes talking and gesturing with her hands and it hits me, shes saying

"I read palm. I read palm for you? You want palm read? I read palm for you?"


I was like......ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

I got in my car and noped the fuck out of there.

They got me for 80 bucks off 10 minutes of work and I drove away with my car looking even more fucked up than before.


for reference...these are puller holes: https://spitfiremk3.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/image_141.jpg