At work today I was reminded of what’s now a pretty funny story when I was a teen and living the life with my first car. We were sharing stories about how we all were providing a better life for our children than what we had growing up. We were also talking about how those of us helping to support our kids through college had to drive older vehicles and the challenges of maintaining those vehicles.
This all reminded me of the time where my father had me take the concept of “recycled” oil to a whole new level. As a teen I couldn’t afford to change the oil in my car. My dad had asked me when was the last time I changed my oil and I told him months because I didn’t have the money for oil. This is when he took me to the basement and showed me all the used motor oil he had from changing his oil religiously every 3000 miles. He had me use his used motor oil because as he put it, “3000 mile old oil is better than the stuff I had in my car for 6 months.” You know, I still can’t argue with that logic.
Growing up in Chicago 
Cool note. Here’s a modern piece which encourages teens to recycle motor oil in more conventional ways. It’s called Recyclicious, done in a rap music parody style:. http://www.oneworldsf.com/work/?page_id=72&album=124