This is one of those blogs where you’re gonna go, “oh, man, here he goes again.” But that’s just one of the things we curmudgeons do, so if you don’t want to waste your time, maybe check back later….
Yesterday, it was raining (finally) and I put a newspaper that was in our neighbor’s driveway on his porch, so it wouldn’t get wet, or at least any wetter. He gets the Wall Street Journal once a week — he never reads it, because he reads everything online.
So — that got me to thinking. A job that I had as a kid was a paperboy. In fact, just about every kid I knew was a paperboy at one time or another. The job consisted of delivering the daily newspaper around the neighborhood — either on your bike, or walking. The few papers that get delivered today are by adults… in cars.
Now I could just stop now… if I had a point, I guess I’ve made it. But, continuing to travel down memory lane, a few more jobs have become just about non-existent since I was a kid….
Newspapers have changed a lot — they used to employ typesetters, that set each individual letter and literally laid out the page for the printing press. Today that’s all done by software and computers.
And — all newspapers had proofreaders on their staffs. I don’t remember nearly as many mistakes in the newspapers we used to get delivered as I find in the online new stories today. Maybe “spellcheck” is cheaper than hiring proofreaders, but….
Another profession that hasn’t gone completely away, but almost has, is secretaries, or administrative assistants or executive assistants or whatever you call them. Almost every mid to high level position came with some sort of assistant, to take notes, answer phones, etc….. not anymore.
When I was a kid, just about every town had at least one shoe repair shop, where you could get shoes, or just about any leather item repaired. I think these skilled workmen were known as cobblers. I don’t think there are very many cobblers left anymore.
One of my brothers-in law was a very talented photographer and specialized in weddings. With the advent of digital photos, and iPhones, people don’t hire wedding photographers much anymore and rarely go to studios to have portraits taken. I guess photography is still a viable profession, but not nearly as popular as in the past.
And in the same vein, people used to make a living developing film for people that took pictures. Today, it’s hard to find film, let alone someone to develop it. I remember every drug store could develop film, or at least have it developed for you, and there used to be little “huts” in shopping center parking lots that would develop your film in an hour or so…. no more.
Another job I had as a kid was as a projectionist at the local movie theater. We used to load the reels of movie film in the projectors and start the second projector when the first roll of film ran out. If you hit the button just right, you never even saw a flicker on the screen. Today I doubt that there aren’t more than a handful of projectionists employed… maybe not any. Now all the projectors are digital and run by timers.
And of course there aren’t many, or any, door-to-door salesmen, or full-service gas station attendants left.
So many of those professions that once were thought to be job security for the future, are gone or almost gone — or changed…. I never would have left my neighbor’s paper out in the rain when I was a paperboy.
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