I think the key is that you were young, and didn't know that "fixing things is hard". I find that many adults proudly proclaim that they have no mechanical ability! When I show them how trivially simple it is to do something like replace a bad lamp socket, it's almost like they don't want to hear it.
Jim On Dec 27, 2006, at 4:46 PM, Andrew Baron wrote: > I was 12 years old when I got my first old phonograph. This was in > 1974, and the machine, which I paid for with lawn-mowing earnings > and a Morgan silver dollar was a lowly Berg-Artone suitcase style > portable. It had a broken governor, damaged diaphragm, very black > & greasy motor etc., but it also was my first phonograph repair > teacher, in a manner of speaking. I used to drag any willing adult > into my world just long enough to play the machine for them. This > was often as not met with the comment "It's amazing that it still > works", followed by my boring them with the details of the work it > needed and the repairs I carried out. I used to think it a trick > question when they asked how I knew what to do, and was always at a > loss as to what to answer. It was only later that I came to > realize that not all people understand a mechanism when they see > it, or how to go about putting it in order. Admittedly, at 12 > years old my approach was creative when it came to repair > materials, but at least the methods worked. It was a great > discovery some years later when I learned that there were real live > companies devoted to selling parts for repairing phonographs. > > I don't know when my interest in this subject began, but it was > certainly in place by the time I was eight or nine. > > Andy Baron
