Yup Jerry the grocery store is exactly where that set of encyclopedias came from…..it was really a pretty good way for families to have a set of encyclopedias in 25 weeks without having to finance the purchase or make one large (at the time) payment.

One of the things I like the older books for is getting the perspective of the times closer to when the events happened than you can get from more current filtered and condensed history books and internet searches. I’m really looking forward to going thru the copy of “History’s Greatest War….a Pictorial Narritive” of WWI copyrighted in 1920 that I brought back.

I remember also going into the town library on occasion to research papers and it was generally a busy place........I guess not so much anymore.

I also recall when I started out as a mechanic the head mechanic in the shop pulling me aside and telling me the most important tools we had were "up there" pointing to the shelf were the factory manuals were kept. I took that bit of advice to heart .........this is what is in my shop and they still are my most important tools.







That being said, yesterday I was researching the application of a customer’s carburetor he wanted me to rebuild. I spent about 15 minutes researching the carb number thru my carb book then remembered I had a computer. I typed the number into google and had the application in about 5 seconds.

I still love my books I refuse to buy shop manuals on disc……Maybe that’s why they call me an “old guy” (among other things….. dinosaur and fossil come to mind ).



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