"I am told that in the '70s there used to be tube testers and vacuum
tubes sold at the grocery store."

Not only that, the local drugstore had a tube testing station (like today's blood pressure testing stations) where you could bring in a vacuum tube off the street and test it on the spot.  Of course, that place also had a soda fountain with great burgers and 25-cent milkshakes, but that is a different branch of ancient history.

Stephen

--- On Thu, 8/14/08, Gary Lee www.vwrack.com <gary2a@TELUS.NET> wrote:

> From: Gary Lee www.vwrack.com <gary2a@TELUS.NET>
> Subject: Re: Are Today's Young People Mechanical Nitwits?
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Date: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 4:35 PM
> Interesting conversation.  Gets one thinking.
> I am told that in the  70s there used to be tube testers
> and vacuum
> tubes sold at the grocery store.  I guess people, just
> ordinary
> people, would fix their own tvs and radios.  That was also
> a time
> when you could buy an american or german (or even japanese)
> made TV.
>
> Kids these days may not know how to fix an electrical
> device (or a
> car), but some can code a computer app in short order.
>
> Our vanagons are, with the exception of the
> digifant/digijet system,
> analog devices.  Entirely comprehensible and possible to
> master, as
> demonstrated by many on this list.  I suspect these buses
> are at the
> tail end of an era of vehicles which the owner can
> participate in the
> operation AND maintenance of the vehicle.  On some level
> it's a
> relationship, making the vanagon more than just a
> transportation
> appliance.  Of course it's also a trade off.  We give
> up things like
> power, lower emissions, comfort and safety for this
> 'relationship'.
> Yah, it's a love hate kind of thing.  But when I look
> back at the
> previous decade I don't think of the time I spent
> driving my ford focus.
>
> Gary Lee
> www.vwrack.com
>
>
> On 14-Aug-08, at 1:43 PM, Mike Elliott wrote:
>
> >
> > Well put, Gary. Likewise, the days when young kids
> could get
> > started in electronics by tinkering with their
> parent's tube radio
> > or hi-fi are long gone. Open any piece of modern
> electronics and
> > you'll find nothing in there that can be worked
> on. Multi-layer
> > circuit boards and fine-pitch surface-mount components
> cannot be
> > worked on by normal humans, unlike the exposed wiring
> and great big
> > grabbable components that earlier products contained.
> I expect that
> > old-timey ham radio operators and DIY gadget builders
> notice that
> > "kids these days" don't know how
> anything electrical works.
> >
> > --
> >
> > Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> >
> > On 8/14/2008 12:12 PM Gary Lee www.vwrack.com wrote:
> >
> >> Today's young people may be mechanical
> nitwits, but I wouldn't say
> >> they are nitwits.  Not that anybody has, but I
> gotta stick up for
> >> them.
> >> Modern cars are very complex.  Complicated cars
> are harder to repair
> >> than simple cars.  Most people would also agree
> that with that
> >> complexity we also get far lower emissions and
> higher safety than
> >> vanagon era cars.  So it's easy to see why
> repairing one's own car is
> >> not within the scope of a lot of people nowadays.
> >> Want a simple car?  Too bad we can't buy third
> world market car in
> >> North america.  Like an Indian Tata, it's
> simple and cheap.  What you
> >> loose out on is comfort, safety and lower
> emissions.
> >>
>
> >> Gary Lee
> >