I found if you can break the ice with a bit of humor, the kind we all seem to use, the car guys are a pretty good bunch. When I worked for Pontiac in Charlotte, a couple buddies I had let me drive a car to lunch. Well it wasn't to lunch, but the parts guys were teasing about me driving and so my 2 buddies got in on the passenger side without saying anything. I just walked around and got behind the wheel and drove away from parts. Unfortunately the general manager was coming back from lunch while this was going on and I got the talk on how dangerous that was. The owner was cool though. When we got back from lunch he called me in his office. I was sure that was the end of my job. He asked to see my drivers license and I told him I left it home. So he just said until I started bringing it to work with me he didn't want me driving any more cars. Each shop I worked in brought about the "You do what?" And after I did my job we were fine. Of course it was easy to steel tools from me and that still burns my butt but there are far more good guys than the bad. ----- Original Message ----- From: Larry Stansifer To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 7:18 PM Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] Sighted and cynical hardware store salespeople
Bob, A number of years ago I had the opportunity to tour Air Flow Research a leading manufacturer of high end performance upgrades. Once those guys found out that spoke their language, ate my lunch off of the top of my tool box and had a beer or two after work you couldn't have asked for a more informative and cordial bunch of guys. I was accorded the same respect as any other automotive professional. Car guys seem to have a sense about other car guys and we seem to hang together. -----Original Message----- From: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bob Kennedy Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 4:50 PM To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Sighted and cynical hardware store salespeople The people that actually know what they are doing or talking about aren't threatened by anyone or anything. I love the guys I talk to and they can explain something while I'm holding it. But you're right the little guys shouldn't even be working in a store like that. You can tell they aren't an expert in anything. ----- Original Message ----- From: Barry Levine To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 5:58 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Sighted and cynical hardware store salespeople Howdy Folks, I don't know if it's just my own experience, but far and away the best, least opinionated, most assisstive and helpful hardware store salespeople have been the retired Ace-type trades and handymen. I've always been happy when being assisted by someone like that. There's no annoying attitude to get around, or waste time educating, or simply getting frustrated over. They just help. The more sophisticated among them have sort of knowingly taken into account my blindness and problem-solved with me regarding alternative techniques for getting something done. Certainly, there's always the admonishment about safety, etc. But, I can easily accept that. I do it myself to others. If ever I've run into some cynicism and ignorance regarding my Blind Handyman abilities, it's been from a relatively young clerk in one of the big home improvement box stores, such as Home Depot or Menards. Even then, I can't always determine if they're being ignorant regarding blindness, or simply can't be bothered to open a locked glass case, or sealed package, etc. Give me Howard Cunningham any day of the week! --Barry [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ If you would like to join the Blind Computing list, then visit the following address for more information: http://jaws-users.com/mailman/listinfo/blind-computing_jaws-users.com For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links -- BEGIN-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS ------------------------------------------------------ Teach InfoWest Spam Trap if this mail (ID 138725973) is spam: Spam: https://spamtrap.infowest.com/canit/b.php?i=138725973&m=f8dbedfb3420&c=s Not spam: https://spamtrap.infowest.com/canit/b.php?i=138725973&m=f8dbedfb3420&c=n Forget vote: https://spamtrap.infowest.com/canit/b.php?i=138725973&m=f8dbedfb3420&c=f ------------------------------------------------------ END-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
