I appreciate many things about Charlie, our kind and articulate auto mechanic.

I tend to run into Charlie when there’s trouble, and one of the things I admire about him is that he never tires of educating me (or trying) about the inner workings of my car. He is unfailingly patient with me, speaking in a soft and patient voice.

I am open to learning what he has to say, mostly because he says it so clearly and courteously. I wore out my teachers a lot sooner.

I am not a good learner; it takes a good teacher to penetrate my screen of distraction.

Today, a lesson on static torque and car tires.  Charlie told his wife Julie once that he thought I might end up a “car man” yet, which I took to be a high compliment from a man of few words. He hasn’t said it lately.

I haven’t had the good fortune to have many good and long talks with car mechanics, for most of my life I didn’t see them much – I dropped the car off, and came back to pay the bill and drive off.

That is not generally the case in the country, where you don’t get off that easy, good mechanics like Charlie want you to understand what you are paying for

Two weeks ago, Maria and I were driving to see a movie in Williamstown, when there was a loud banging sound coming from the engine and a scary warning message urging us to pull over the car immediately or risk severe damage. It was not a good place to break down, a dark and lonely highway.

Even I understood that the warming about oil pressure meant there was no oil in the engine. We made it to a nearby convenience store and called AAA.

We were out in the middle of nowhere and knew instantly we would have to be towed back home. I love my Toyota SUV and have almost religious faith in it, it has more than 170,000 miles on it.

I’m always shocked when there’s trouble.

I’ve been a member of triple AAA for more than 40 years and have called them perhaps four or five times in that time. They are one of the fixed points in the universe for me. Whenever I needed them, they just came. As cars became complex – I could not manage to figure out a spare tire these days – I didn’t need to worry about it.

Only true wizards like Charlie fix their own cars any longer.

It was okay. There was AAA.

In our culture, we learn less and less about our machines and devices and rely on others to keep us functioning. And they get more complex all of the time, the great myth of our time is that technology makes life simpler and easier.

When I called AAA this time, I saw my worldview needed to change once more.

I encountered the complexity of our Brave New World. My card has expired, and I didn’t get a warning, or perhaps more likely, didn’t see it or realize it. I wasn’t covered. There was no mercy, I couldn’t simply re-up. I was a new member. I had to transfer to a different department, put out some money, do my penance.

I was shocked by the coldness of it, even though it was my fault. Didn’t 40 years mean anything?  Couldn’t I just give them a credit card number and get help?

The short answer is no. A lot of people take advantage of  AAA, it seems, new contracts are full of limits and warnings and fees to discourage manipulation.

To get home, I had to pay our yearly dues, and a bunch of new member first-time fees and expenses, including $4-a-mile surcharges for towing for new customers.  My lapse cost me the benefits I always took for granted.

Everywhere I go, there are fees, the new corporate pathway to profits. Prices mean almost nothing.

We got home, but it took more than $400, and if we had gone any further, we could barely have paid the additional new member towing charge.

We did get home, and the tow truck left the car at Charlie’s, he would be at work the next morning. Charlie confirmed that an oil pump hose had ruptured, he fixed the car the next day. A few more minutes, and the damage would have been severe.

But a few days ago, more car trouble.

Driving down Main Street, we heard a pop and a hiss, our right rear tire has been blown out by a giant chunk of metal.

I got the car safely onto a side street and called AAA. As a paid-up member, it was like the old days: they were efficient, concerned, they came quickly in a flashy new truck, got out the spare, put it on and were competent, polite and courteous.

It’s still there, but there is no mercy or room for mistakes. The computers don’t permit it.

Charlie is a fixed point for me in the way AAA was and perhaps still is. He is there when I need him, and I know he can and will set things right.

Today, Charlie put a new tire on (only $209) and instructed me in the meaning of static torque; the kind mechanics apply with a wrench to tighten head bolts. (To avoid confusion, the units for static torque are traditionally foot-pounds. There are also SI sticks with newton-meters for both static and dynamic torque measurements. Okay, Charlie, I’m just showing off in case you read this.)

I only see Charlie when there’s trouble, which is a shame because it is always a pleasure to talk to somebody so bright and interesting. He lives on a farm and replaces his roof tiles. I think he is one of those very self-sufficient men who take care of their stuff.

He has no interest in raw ambition or office politics; he likes to work on his own, without anyone looking over his shoulder. His boss, Clint Rushinki, obliges, he works out of a different garage. Charlie is the man at my garage.

It seems that every story that begins with Charlie ends happily, he got my tire on and put away the spare in minutes and charged me nothing for his time. Do other people get to feel that their mechanics care about them and take pride in setting things right?

We all live with change. The new AAA contract allows for four calls in a year; after that, you pay for service or towing. Charlie will take care of me anytime but weekends.

And I almost forget, I called up AAA and told a genuinely interested and empathetic person that I was stung that they treated me so bureaucratically after all these years. They took away my faith in one of the few fixed points in my universe. If you’re in trouble, they will come – maybe.

I wasn’t a first time customer, and I was surprised to be hit with a bunch of special fees as if I were some sneaky AAA-user.

If we’d gone too much further, I said,  like New York City, we would not have been able to pay for getting home. This was a new kind of relationship, so suck-it-up Jon.

I’m a humanist; I want to deal with people. I knew I was pissing the wind, the nice people on the line had no more power than I did. The people who do have power rarely, if ever, get on the phone.

Didn’t 40 years count for anything? It was my fault, I said, but all they had to do was let me pay for the membership renewal and skip all the special first-time towing and other fees. I took responsibility for my fumble, I said, but I just wanted to relay my disappointment.

A day later, I got a call from an AAA official apologizing for their rigidity and reimbursing me for almost all of the special fees. They understood, the caller said, I was right. A few days later, the fees popped up in my bank account.

Life is indeed more complex and bureaucratic than it used to be, I suppose that will always be the truth in our capitalist culture, everyone is devoted to separating us from our money.

But I accept life, there is no turning back the clock, and nostalgia is a trap anyway.

And this is important:  it is also true that there are so many good and fair and honest people in the world, you can find them if you look and listen.

People like Charlie are out there to remind me what it means to be human.

The human connection is still more powerful than the corporate one. They can never completely wipe it out.