Image above: recent visit to a grocery store.
Let’s step away from the 2024 grocery store and take a trip back to about 1970. The old hardware store in town is a good place to get a key made. Some human interaction is part of it.
People used to repair their own small appliances like toasters and lamps. The hardware store might have repair parts available. The appliances and the repair parts were probably manufactured in a location such as Indiana, Michigan or Ohio.
There’s also a shop in town where you can get your TV repaired instead of throwing it away and buying more. There’s a gas station that will install a new fan belt, check under the hood, do an oil change, give directions or sell you a map, etc.
For food, the gas station has a pop machine and a Cold War era vending machine with candy, gum, and little packs of crackers. Maybe two or three of these.
The place smells like auto transmission fluid and gear oil. Not a bad thing-happy to go back.
If you were a kid in the 70s, you could walk into a gas station and ask if they had any inner tubes for floating around in the water. We did this in Kitsap County (Hockett & Olsen) In the early 1970s. They would find various inner tubes and pump them up to see if they would hold air. They would install an air valve if needed. All free of charge.
Gas stations are mostly gone now. Mini-marts with 24 hour corndogs, nachos and giant cans of beer have taken their place. If you have car trouble, this is probably not the place. Today, the mini-mart will honor your EBT needs.
Missing Man Formation
Back at the (open 24 hours) grocery store- looks like whoever used to operate the floor cleaning rig has gone on to join the WWII veteran who made keys at your local hardware store back when American made cars were attractive, powerful and cool. Trucks were simple and attractive too, they even sold small ones there for awhile.
The floor machine company still makes a unit with a place for a human operator to be seated. Maybe if you purchase the unmanned operations control module or the software to make it work, you can send someone else home.
Here it comes, moving from right to left:
A flashing light and loud/industrial audio warning every few seconds will alert shoppers that nearby cleaning operations are currently underway.
There it goes. Whoever operated the unit can now be removed from the Christmas card/bonus list. Extra space at the office party is now available.
Old Gas Cans
People used to work in US factories making various models of metal gas cans:
These sort of lasted forever. They were easy to use. I have a plastic version from the early 90s that works well. It has a simple air vent. Just right.
Quality replacement parts were sold for years. This kit appears to no longer be available.
Related:
Our laundry room fan stopped working. We went to a big box store to see if they had a replacement part/unit. We only needed the fan motor-nothing else.
In the old days, things would be fixed or repaired. Today, the idea is to throw it away and start over as if the unit had never been installed to begin with.
We arrived at a big display of bathroom fans. Buttons were being pushed to sample fan features. Exhaust fan units today come with lights, a sound system and the ability to speak to a machine and ask it to play music or order items for the bathroom. All of this was being demonstrated at the store display.
I said out loud:
Alexa,
Take me back to 1975 and leave me there.
Possibly of interest:
The Old Days – People Would Exchange A Wave
New Digital Photo Frames/New Version of the Internet Rant
Old Man Blog category:
Thoughts on changes in American culture relating to those born roughly in the late 50s & early 60s.
Original Old Man Blog here: https://oldmanblogdotcom.wordpress.com
New updates here: https://oakbaystarfish.com/category/old-man-blog/