It so depresses me. My son who got popped in Iraq was a promising mechanical engineering student. My young one is a budding machinist/welder. We’re from old German stock, so we value the trades. I’m a hack, but I can forge and heat treat something good enough to get by and enjoy woodworking as well. I can solder, braze or make a simple transistor circuit if I have to.
What the hell has happened to us? Do a search on Google Books for Popular Mechanics and look what kids were encouraged to do back in the day.
So sorry for your loss. Don’t lose hope. I believe the trades will be EXTREMELY valuable in the future, and all the elitists will be starving, or nearly, trying to figure out how to survive....just a hunch.
Sorry to read of your loss.
I too wonder why many of my neighbors cannot bother with fixing simple things on their own. With current tax levels it doesn’t make sense to hire someone to do simple tasks that should be part of most people’s skill set.