Living in the past

[Ed62]

Today I'm living in the past. I remember in the early 70s, we considered having a room addition put on our home. After a trip to the local lumber yard, and telling the owner what we had in mind, he told me he would draw up plans for us. It was all done by hand, and it was a very detailed plan. Of course, there was no charge for this. Today the lumber yard is no longer there, and if you need plans drawn up, it's probably gonna cost you $100.00 or more for someone to enter the information in a computer program, then click on an icon to have your plans automatically made for you.

Back in those days, stores in town opened at 9 AM, as long as someone got up in time. If they didn't, well.... you came back around 9:30, hoping for a better result.

Things were both harder and easier then, but I kind of miss those times.

Ed

[radhak]

Different, is how I remember old times. It was not always golden, but it was not always difficult either.

When I was in college I designed our wardrobe shelvings, to be handed over to a professional to build. I had somehow got my hands on a computer at the lab and drew up the diagram and printed it out neatly. My dad was horrified - if you take that for an estimate, he's gonna charge you twice! Please draw it by hand, so he doesn't think we are rich folks.

But boy, was it a pain to search for something specific, like a particular type of hardware! If the local shop did not have it, you were SOL, unless you were visiting another city, hopefully bigger, which had a different hardware store, maybe more than one store!

I think I missed Google before there was Google !

On the other hand, the person at the hardware store always knew what you wanted, even if you did not, and chatted with you and asked about your day and gave you suggestions about the repair you were planning. I guess he was 'Siri' before there was Siri

[tfischer]

In about 2002 we were going to have an addition put on our old house. The architect we were referred to still did everything the old school way - no computers, all by hand, with pencil. The coolest 'tool' he had was a motor with an eraser on it so he could just wipe out a line with a swipe.

We ended up getting bids that were way out of our ballpark (or any sane guidelines for improving that house) so we ended up moving instead.

Funny thing is, my wife was cleaning out a closet and found a copy of the plans, which we took along with us when we moved (we also left the new owner a copy, not that they ever acted on it either lol) They did cost us a few hundred to have drawn up...

[Tom Slick]

You can figure the plans costing 10% of the total job.

[capncarl]

A group of old friends from my former employer get together every couple of months for a "board meeting". A while back one of them was talking about the good ole days and I had to remind him that it was not really that good, Jimmy Carter was president and gasoline was unaffordable, the economy tanked, people were quitting right and left, some were being laid off, management was on our butts, overtime was killing us, friends were being split up and put on rotating shifts, benefits were being cut and insurance was going up, what was so good about that?

The old time downtown atmosphere was great, stores were neat and everything was just there where you needed it to be. Life was slower. Going in an old hardware store was just like going in the Highland Woodworking store in Atlanta today, just 50 years later, creaky wood floors, low shelves filled with modern stuff. If they had an old fashon cash register rather than a computer cash register you would not know it is 2014.

[atgcpaul]

I didn't really become a consumer until I got to high school. I didn't have a checking account until college. If I wanted to buy anything through the mail (and I didn't want to involve my parents), I'd ride my bike to the local post office in a historic house with squeaky wood floors and get a money order. I'd check the mail religiously for things I had sent away for. Now if I don't get a tracking number in my email, I get POed.

My parents are having their retirement home built now. Their architect drew everything out on graph paper for them to approve because she doesn't use a computer to do it. I guess somehow that gets to blueprints because their house has the foundation set and walls are going up this week.