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Nightmare in the Kitchen. The typical U.S. housewife who once considered herself lucky if she had a washing machine is now surrounded by 25 or more labor-saving electric yeomen worth $3,000. Her do-it-yourself husband—in futile revolt against the professionals—has hundreds , more invested in power saws, drills and lathes—all of which need maintenance and repair. Some 87% of all U.S. homes have washing machines; there are TV sets in 81%, refrigerators in 96%, vacuum cleaners in 67%. No one can do without any of the marvelous new gadgets—therefore no one can do without the repairman to keep them going.
In the housewife's new electronic thralldom, her recurring nightmare is of a darkened kitchen full of sullenly nonfunctioning appliances.
¶ In Montclair, NJ. a party-giving woman phoned hysterically for her repairman; just as the first cocktail guests arrived, the handle came off the refrigerator, locking canapes and ice cubes inside. ¶ In Bloomfield, NJ. a housewife shrieked over the phone that "the washing machine is chasing me all around the room." "Whadya expect," snarled the repairman, "when you put a lopsided load in something that turns up 450 revolutions per minute." ¶ In Akron a distraught wife cried angrily: "My dryer is on fire. What are you going to do about it?" "Let it burn," snapped the repairman. ¶ In San Francisco a young couple pleaded with the repairman to show them how to operate their new $275 electric ironer. Said he blandly: "It won't take you more than six months to learn." ¶ In Denver a matron sadly told the doctor that her husband had had a "spell," brought on by a balky power lawnmower; he had finally assaulted it with a sledge hammer.
"Where Are My Tools?" Once, a reasonably handy householder could keep his own radio working, his auto purring smoothly. But no more. As modern technology leaps forward to answer the demand for ever bigger and better gadgets, the TV set has developed innards as complicated as an electronic brain, and the auto engine has 1,000 parts. In New Orleans recently, an elderly gentleman of model-T vintage looked into the trunk of his brand-new power-brake, power-steered, power-windowed 1957 Chrysler and demanded: "Where are my tools?" "And what," came the reply, "would you do with them?"
What can anyone do but deliver himself squarely into the hands of the repairman, whose burgeoning ranks are the measure of his importance? From less than 1,000,000 in 1940, the ranks have nearly doubled to 1,800,000, spread through hundreds of big company service departments and uncounted thousands of small repair shops. All told, the repairman is the proprietor of a business grossing $16.6 billion annually, more than the total retail sales of clothing or home furnishings. TV repairs last year alone cost nearly $2 billion, more than the value of all new TV sales; electrical appliances added another $1.6 billion to the repair bill, auto repairs $6.6 billion, home repairs $7 billion. This year the totals will climb another 6%.