I got spoiled in the old days when you drove to the motor factors and the staff could look at the old part you showed them, quote the part number from their head, go out the back and give it to you.
In 1970 we had a lady who could do all of that plus mix paint for spraying and reline brake shoes etc. she had been there for years and really knew her job, sadly company got taken over by a bigger company and her approach of calling a spade an "effing shovel" whilst it went down well with customers was not appreciated by management.
The wonderful, now closed, Pilrig Motors were like that. For me, with my interest in older cars, it was a wonderful place. Run by the 3 brothers with their aging Dad in the background for support. You'd go in clutching some obscure part and ask if they could help. The Dad, who was into doing the autojumbles, would say "just you hang on laddy" or some other such endearing turn of phrase, and disappear into the back shop. Some indeterminate time later he'd reappear with the exact part you needed, often still in it's original box complete with brown grease paper! In later years, as I got to know them even better and my own health started to decline a little, they would let me nip through into the back shop to use the loo. This back shop was an absolute Aladdin's cave with stuff piled high in heaps which contained stuff I'm sure only he - the old Dad - knew where it was. They closed the doors last year due to reduced trading, perhaps due the new trams and reworked pavements and consequent lack of parking outside their shop making it very difficult to just stop and nip in for what you wanted or let them fit a new alternator, fan belt, top up coolant or many other tasks which could be quickly accomplished at the curbside. This, coming on top of the years of construction work to build the trams which virtually blockaded the front of the shop, just all proved too much for the brothers, who are themselves getting on in age. Such a loss, I miss them and their shop greatly, we won't see the like of these sorts of establishment again I think. It was the sort of place where you looked twice before leaning on the counter if you had "good" clothes on and the language used was straight speaking and "colourful"
Somewhere I still have the special "snap" rivet punch for doing those shoe rivets!
We may be dinosaurs to the younger PC crowd, where every word you say has to be filtered, however the result I feel is a lot more stressful existence with more mental health issues and violence etc. People are in general less happy, maybe because they have lost the art of communication in person, using texting etc. it is impossible to see someones expression to know how they are taking what you say and so they may be able to see you are taking the pi**
It reminds me of some years ago when a customer was paying a cheque for some work on her car, she asked if I needed her cheque guarantee card, to which I calmly replied with a straight face "no problem , I know where you live, if it bounces I will just go and smash all your windows!" She knew my sense of humour but her daughter was in a right panic, offering to go to the bank etc.
I will point out that all my customers were regulars and I had no intention or need to ask for any guarantees of payment, in the same way they didn't for my work!
We spend a lot of time with the grandchildren and when they were younger much of this was outside, at the beach, visiting country parks, Playing in our garden and in our local park which has an excellent play area and going swimming. The two older ones moved to America with their parents due to my son in law's work commitments. They've now returned to "Blighty" as teenagers and this year it was our turn to host everyone for Christmas. Hardly saw any sign they were staying as they spent hours in their rooms playing with their mobile phones and laptops. My older boy's son is interested in theatricals so spend a lot of time at amateur dramatics and playing his guitar although he does do a bit of minecrafting from time to time He's so busy with the amateur dramatics, where he meets older people too, that and I'm hoping this will keep his screen time to a minimum. His Dad is an excellent guitarist - could probably earn a good living at it if he didn't have a good job with Network rail - so the youngster gets plenty of encouragement from him too. Of my youngest boy's two, 10 year old girl and 4 year old boy, the girl spends a lot of time on her tablet looking at rubbish. I try to sit with her - she likes snuggling up to grandad on the sofa - when I can comment on what she's looking at and also monitor it for content. So far it all looks like "girly rubbish" but I'm steadily chipping away at warning her of the dangers lurking in the internet. The young laddy is an absolute joy. He's as besotted with anything to do with cars and motor cycles as I am. Already he knows all the car badges and comments as we walk down the street "That one's a Mecedes Benz eh grandad? and that one's an Audi and that one's a Ford. Just of late he's now recognized the Renault emblem and isually gets the Nissan one. Last week we were walking past a very badly parked SUV monster parked facing on coming traffic, so on the "wrong" side of the road, with it's O/S/F tyre half on and half off the curb. "That's not good for his tyre eh Grandad?" said the wee lad. At only 4 years old? I was fair bursting with pride! Maybe there's going to be someone in the family who i can leave my tools too?
On the subject of "frightening" people. When the builders turned up to start work on my younger boy's extension we were actually at the house childminding on that day. As the men got out of their vans Mrs J said to me "I'm sure I know that chap, he was at our school". Mrs J was, for many years, a school administrator. So she talked to him and he was indeed an ex student of her school. "well", said Mrs J, "I hope you're going to make an extra good job of this, just remember, I know where you live!" He did laugh at this, but he also looked a bit on the anxious side too - I think Mrs J had a bit of a reputation for discipline in the playground!
