Meet Rabbit, the High School Automotive Entrepreneur

 

So, needless to say, my social life picked up dramatically. From that moment in high school I went out for the football team. I was a big guy weigh about 300 pounds, six foot, two big dude. You know that's fat, slow and smoke like at our kettle, and so, needless to say, football was not it. I was the kid with the clean white tennis shoes, and so I got cash basically quit the football team. While my girlfriend broke up with me the same week, I was brokenhearted, I was just down the dumps and but that was a promod drag racer. He was mr. cool, so I mean you know, being here: didn't have those sit down and arm around your son moments? Usually, but my dad knew I was down in the dumps, I come home one day from school and there's a 1995 Trans Am I'll. Keep myself brain you car sitting there with a red bow on it in the driveway. What'S this I get out and that's it. I seen he was having a rough week. I bought you a car and what I TransAm he said yep. So when all your buddies are playing with each other playing football now you can go play with their girlfriends. So, needless to say, my social life picked up dramatically. From that moment, I was really really really particular about my car. I didn't want a parking you got to think in an underclassman. Every high school is the same they're gon na put you way in the nosebleeds parking. Well, you think I won't cram. My brand-new Trans Am in the back of the school parking lot. No, that's not gon na happen. I Drive an Oscar cause, most teachers, so I parked in teacher parking I get they got on to me a few times about it and a few things were said. Well, I got the bride, yes, Senor parking. What'S the next rook I found me a senior that took the bus got her to buy me a parking pass. I started parking Senor parking and that worked for about the biggest part of the rest of the year. I had it figured out. My Trans Am was safe and ordained free had a good parking spot everybody's happy until this one assisted principle that didn't like me. She was waiting by my car one day. As I came out, she said mr. Pitts you're, not a senior but you're parked in senior partying. I said I'm a freshman, but I take a senior home sometimes and she's out sick today. What'S her name needless to say, didn't take long to figure out. I was lying, she said, we've had a serious problem with you in your parking come to my office. She said one more parking problem with you. You need to go back to underclassmen parking one more time and we're permanently going to revoke your parking privileges and I'm thinking to myself my dad owns a damn car lot. I could drive a different car every day, so I got smart, but that bright, green dealer tag got me every time. It'S a needless to say what do I do went back in teacher partying just like that. She said after today you need to move your car and you can't bring it back on school grounds. Well, here I am with a brand new Trans Am and I'm going to explain to my parents why I can't drive it to school. I said Rob you're smarter than this. You can do this, so I was pulling out of school and waited in high school has a row of ranch houses across the street. I mean it's a two-lane road in front of it 50 feet from the front door. Is these ranch houses I pulled out and there was an elderly lady out, checking her mail? I whipped my Trans Am right in the driveway I said ma'am, I'm a new student here and they're. Not selling parking passes anymore. She said baby. You could park your car in my driveway better, yet the garage we'll just put it in the garage and I'm thinking this is just too good to be true, I said well, thank you ma'am. I mean thank you for my purchase. I'Ll pay you she said you owe me anything. She said, that's a beautiful car. You have my soul, thank you ma'am, so I had it figured out so the next morning I pull right in to her driveway I back in she's. Waiting on me. Would you like anything to eat any breakfast or anything? I said no ma'am, I'm good! I'M just gon na go on in the school as I'm walking across the street in the class mr. Brewster standing front of schools. I flip a more rural out walking into the parking lot I'm officially parking closer than I was in teacher party and there's nothing. She could say about it and this lady was sewn and it is so funny the story this lady baked cookies. For me, when I got out of school, what it was right in my car was sitting in the garage. I liked her better than my real grandma, and but the high school was full of that kind of stuff. You know I was always in something I always had the hustle, but way before you know I was putting Chevrolet's and driveways and dodges and garages and Fords up on the board. I loved cleaning up cause a lot of detailing cars. Well, my junior and senior year. You know I had study halls in Career Center which or bird stuff you can leave, and I was detailing half the faculties colors that waiting on the school and they would let me leave to clean their car up, so they would be ready by the time they Left and you know think about it - this was 1995 in South Carolina. You know, minimum wage was a four quarter an hour. Well, Rob was paying $ 10 an hour to clean up colors, so I had five guys working with me and I had car Lots all up and down the stretch, and I was dropping guys off with clean up stuff and using their water and cleaning cars up And I'd pick him back up and pick a check up as I go, I love body work. I mean my dad sold salvage cars for a living, so dealers say body work was kind of close to me a little bit. So I decided you know what I'll take body class. Well, we had a state of the art frame machine. It was brand new at the time it was a car liner machine. This thing was really really nice and the funniest thing about it was that a lot of the body shops didn't have a frame machine or near this nice. You know they had a chain the floor toad unit. You know - and this thing you know was up with the computer on I mean this is one of the first ones like that that you could actually dial a car and they put it back in spec. I was reading the frame machine out because our body shop teacher had a thing with the lady in the front office, so he would get us started in check roll and he's gone for three hours. You didn't see him again. I would call him up and say: get the car over here and, if somebody walked in I'd, say was my car and we put on the frame machine and I was pulling cars and charging for it. We had an alignment rack in shop class. I had a little racket with this guy. We were lying, the front ends on them too. We had another guy, he already called the paint booth, though so I couldn't really charge for that one, but we did have enough time to really be paying cars, but but frame she worked out. Pretty good had the best rates in town, anybody working a frame machine. My senior year and actually took a job at an auto parts store, and this is probably the funniest thing ever. You know, I'm working a parts counter an auto parts store and you know just just a little after-school job and I was working one Saturday. The manager comes in in a tizzy, you know they accepted all your used oil and it's big old tank in the back. It was overflowing some reason: the company, the corporate set up, never came to get our old. We just kind of fell off the list, so we got all this old on. How do you get rid of it? Well, I found a used oil company that will buy it from me and they wrote me a check once a week for the oil on the back of that store. I just make sure I was working that day they came. I did that for like a year and if I never knew I mean this, they were glad it was empty and I mean I guess the big store manager figured that the company was supposed to be getting us. I don't know what I thought after I left. So basically, I guess all these high school experiences was just another feather in my cap of automotive, entrepreneurism, [, Music ], you