This is very true.
I got started on my first real car project when I was about 12. I had this small set of tools that I had bought with my paper route money and I would get under the hood of my mom's Chevy and tighten up bolts here and there. I was too afraid to take anything loose. My mom didn't care for it and complained to my dad so he ended up getting me an old Ford at auction and that became my mechanical education. I originally rebuilt the top half of the 6 cylinder, rebuilt the single barrel carb, thought all cars had positive ground and every once in awhile my dad would take me and the car out for a ride. I then managed to crack the block one winter as I had no idea what anti-freeze happened to be. That lead to my first engine swap but that's another story.
I got started on my first real car project when I was about 12. I had this small set of tools that I had bought with my paper route money and I would get under the hood of my mom's Chevy and tighten up bolts here and there. I was too afraid to take anything loose. My mom didn't care for it and complained to my dad so he ended up getting me an old Ford at auction and that became my mechanical education. I originally rebuilt the top half of the 6 cylinder, rebuilt the single barrel carb, thought all cars had positive ground and every once in awhile my dad would take me and the car out for a ride. I then managed to crack the block one winter as I had no idea what anti-freeze happened to be. That lead to my first engine swap but that's another story.