What's Your First 'Engineering' Story?

I recently came across a feel-good story about a young engineer-to-be that reminds me of my own experience as a youth.

The story is a about a pre-teen who saw an article in a magazine that showed how to build electronic dice. With help from his dad, who was an electrical engineer, he was able to obtain the components and build a working model. He actually deviated from the directions and built what he considered a better mousetrap.
In my case, it was a color organ. Do you remember those? You connected it to your stereo, and it would display different colors based on the bass, treble, and mid-range sounds that it heard. I got this as a Heath-Kit (I guess I’m showing my age now) and couldn’t get it to work. Dad wasn’t an electrical engineer but had some pretty fair skills in that space. He let me struggle for a little while, and then came to the rescue. The problem ended up being a bad (OK, sloppy) solder. We got it to work, and I’m sure Dad was sorry he ever got involved because the louder you turned up the music, the more colors that were displayed.

That original story was posted on a site dedicated to similar stories. It might be worth checking out. You go on and vote for the story you like best, and a prize is being awarded to the one with the most votes.

And be sure to tell us your own stories in the comments section below!