When I was a boy, everybody seemed to have a workbench, either downstairs in the cellar or else the garage. I’ll bet my grandpa had a thousand tools. And my Uncle Ferdie was an inventor.
Were people handier back then? My father made all sorts of things we used around the house. Grandpa made toys (we still have some of them).
But the years flow by, and decades of apartment living have eroded any handiness I ever had. *Sigh*
I’ll answer your question with a “Yes, people were more handy”. More self-reliant as well. Nowadays it’s “call someone to come take care of it” for Every. Little. Thing. I’m so glad I had parents from a very different generation than those now, who chose to diagnose and fix what they could themselves and only in the special circumstances (electrical work, extensive plumbing, etc.) have the experts come in to fix it.
My aunts did most of their own minor home repairs… if my father wasn’t around to do it for them.
My dad has a workbench in the garage with a vice on the end of it. He was a real handman but never seemed interested in teaching me what he knew. Now that I an grown I wish he had. On this Father’s Day I sure do miss him.
My father let all 3 of us (including my sister) use his tools… although the power tools were off limits unless he was there to supervise. Not that I wanted anything to do with that saw…
I do believe folks were handier in years past. My grandfather and dad both had a workbench with tools in their basement, and knew how to use them, as did I when I owned a house. I picked up a bit of know-how from both of them, and from the wood and medal shop classes I had in school.
Somehow that reminds me of my fleet of light wooden Civil War ironclads–all the product of our jigsaw.