Everybody"s Doing It
Do it Yourself - the phenomenon of every husband being expected to be able to repair/replace/renovate whatever breaks, wears out or goes wonky about the home is essentially an expectation which has arisen in the last 50 years or so.
The difficult times following WWII, when both the shortage of disposable cash in family finances and the shortage of tradesmen willing to work for small wages, probably contributed to the circumstances which forced Dad to have a go at household repairs.
Combine that with the fact that the Mum who went out to work to support the War Effort was no longer as tractable as previous generations of wives and mothers, and was therefore much more likely to demand that hubby DO SOMETHING to rectify the problem.
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and there you have it, the birth of Do It Yourself as a national pastime.
It became so popular that even the very name was shortened, and the initials DIY became synonymous with weekends spent sawing, hammering, painting and generally spending more money than it would have cost to get a professional in to do the job in the first place.
Hour after hour spent working on home improvements - and hours spent in hospital waiting rooms to get bandaged up when a thumb got hammered instead of the nail.
But over the years, Dad's got better at it - and Mum's started having a go - and eventually some families ended up with DIY taking the place of the annual week at the seaside.
This DIY phenomenon, we have an idea of what started it off, but it would never have got under way - accelerated the way it did - without the retail industry.
Once upon a time - way back in the dim past when I was young - there were little shops, Aladdin's caves of fascinating artifacts, called Hardware Shops.
They sold everything from saucepans to nails and screws, mousetraps to tape measures - strange, weird and wonderful things hung from hooks on the walls (and ceiling) and filled tubs on the floor.
Grandma wanted mothballs ? Nip down to Mrs Flitton's and get some - and pick up a scouring pad and a tub of Vim at the same time (and if you are really good, Mrs Flitton might let you look at the latest kittens - and NO you cant bring another one home!).
Those wonderful little shops were fine for the time Granddad wanted a picture hook - but something much more comprehensive was needed to support the DIY frenzy that swept the nation.
No, that needed something bigger, much bigger - and the first DIY *superstore* arrived on the scene.
Suddenly DIY was big business, and it has grown over the years with the advent of more and more large retailers - and more and more husbands willing to tackle larger home projects.
Even specialist building supplies are readily available - if you have a DIY sewage/drain enthusiast in the family he can easily get everything he needs to pursue his hobby over the counter.
Today we dont even have to leave our chairs to buy what we need, the DIY superstores are on the internet.
Today we don't use many mousetraps - but our mouse gets a lot of use.
Today DIY is just an accepted part of our lives - everybody's doing it.
The difficult times following WWII, when both the shortage of disposable cash in family finances and the shortage of tradesmen willing to work for small wages, probably contributed to the circumstances which forced Dad to have a go at household repairs.
Combine that with the fact that the Mum who went out to work to support the War Effort was no longer as tractable as previous generations of wives and mothers, and was therefore much more likely to demand that hubby DO SOMETHING to rectify the problem.
...
...
and there you have it, the birth of Do It Yourself as a national pastime.
It became so popular that even the very name was shortened, and the initials DIY became synonymous with weekends spent sawing, hammering, painting and generally spending more money than it would have cost to get a professional in to do the job in the first place.
Hour after hour spent working on home improvements - and hours spent in hospital waiting rooms to get bandaged up when a thumb got hammered instead of the nail.
But over the years, Dad's got better at it - and Mum's started having a go - and eventually some families ended up with DIY taking the place of the annual week at the seaside.
This DIY phenomenon, we have an idea of what started it off, but it would never have got under way - accelerated the way it did - without the retail industry.
Once upon a time - way back in the dim past when I was young - there were little shops, Aladdin's caves of fascinating artifacts, called Hardware Shops.
They sold everything from saucepans to nails and screws, mousetraps to tape measures - strange, weird and wonderful things hung from hooks on the walls (and ceiling) and filled tubs on the floor.
Grandma wanted mothballs ? Nip down to Mrs Flitton's and get some - and pick up a scouring pad and a tub of Vim at the same time (and if you are really good, Mrs Flitton might let you look at the latest kittens - and NO you cant bring another one home!).
Those wonderful little shops were fine for the time Granddad wanted a picture hook - but something much more comprehensive was needed to support the DIY frenzy that swept the nation.
No, that needed something bigger, much bigger - and the first DIY *superstore* arrived on the scene.
Suddenly DIY was big business, and it has grown over the years with the advent of more and more large retailers - and more and more husbands willing to tackle larger home projects.
Even specialist building supplies are readily available - if you have a DIY sewage/drain enthusiast in the family he can easily get everything he needs to pursue his hobby over the counter.
Today we dont even have to leave our chairs to buy what we need, the DIY superstores are on the internet.
Today we don't use many mousetraps - but our mouse gets a lot of use.
Today DIY is just an accepted part of our lives - everybody's doing it.
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