Shoutout to the old timer at the hardware store in Ohio

I was at a small hardware store near Cincinnati last spring, looking for a specific size washer for a leaky outdoor spigot. An elderly employee stopped me and showed me how to use a rubber gasket instead of chasing down the exact washer size. Has anyone else gotten good advice from a random stranger at a local shop that changed how you handle small repairs?

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john_sullivan24mo ago

Man, the best knowledge is never sold in a book. It's passed down over a counter.

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barbara9674mo ago

My uncle spent 30 years at a machine shop and the first thing he told me was that the most useful stuff he ever learned came from a $40 textbook on metallurgy, not from any old-timer whispering secrets over a lathe. Honestly, that book explained why certain metals crack under heat and how to fix it, and none of the guys on the floor could tell him that because they just did things the way they'd always done them. Ngl, I've read maybe 12 books on small business accounting, and every single one saved me from costly mistakes that some "passed down" advice would have missed.

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