I had somehow saved enough lawn moving money to buy a cotterless crank for my Mercier back in the mid 1970s. It was a swaged Sugino, which didn't really match the Mercier, but it was cotterless and alloy. Sometime later, I fell awkwardly and bent a chainring, right out front of a neighbor's house. At the time, I had rudimentary rim truing and derailleur/brake adjusting skills, but not the tools to remove a crankset and straighten a chainring.

My neighbor, a father, a automobile fanatic and tinkerer, came out to see why I was so upset. I showed him my bike and he said to bring it into this garage shop. I doubt that he had repaired many bicycles, but you never know. Anyway, he unbolted the inner chainring so that it could slip free and hang down, as he worked a large adjustable wrench around the chainring, straightening it as he went around. In maybe 1/2 hour, my cranks were as good as new. I thanked him. I later stopped by and said hello when I was riding by and he was working on a car in his driveway or garage. Nice man.

Last time I saw him was at our wedding 30 years ago in August...