Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster
Anecdotal evidence is as good as a fart in the wind. Feel free to link any studies and I'll change my mind (hard to do, this stuff wasn't being studied 30+ years ago, not much valid data pointing back that far). So anecdotal vs. anecdotal, I wasn't around 40 years ago, but tcoat and humfrz were, my parents were, things weren't so different.
lol you know 'handyman' used to be a valid profession right? Maybe grandpa could unclog a toilet or clean a carburetor, but odds are his neighbor couldn't and either called someone or paid his neighbor a case of beer to get the lawnmower going or replace the heater coil in the dryer.
The vast majority never had a clue, don't let nostalgia fool you.
|
The distractions were the same only the medium in how we received them was different. Whole cities would shut down for TV shows or sporting events since you only got one shot to see them when there was no way to record it for later or pull it up on demand. Commuters (and drivers) had their noses buried in newspapers and magazines instead of phones so still did not even acknowledge each other's presence. All in all pretty much the same as now.
When I got out of the Army I worked in a hardware store for a couple of years. It was a very popular one that drew people from all around the city. I bet that less than half were actually doing the work themselves though. Many were buying materials for others to do the task or looking for somebody to do even the simplest thing for them. I more than doubled my income by doing "handyman" type jobs. Some of these were as simple as putting a new flapper in a toilet for $5 or as complex as running all new plumbing or wiring for a project for several hundred. In many of these cases the customer had more than enough skill to do the task but they just didn't want to have to do it for one reason or another. Now I am the guy walking into a store and asking if somebody can do the work just because I don't want to. The others had no clue and had no reason to want to learn since there was people to do it for them. Ability and desire are two totally different things and should not be confused.