A customer's old radio made me see my work differently

A guy brought in a 1970s tube radio last week, saying he just wanted to hear it play one more time. He told me, 'It's not about the sound, it's about the memory of my dad building it.' I've fixed hundreds of things, but that hit different. It shifted my view from just fixing broken parts to saving stories. Anyone else get a repair job that felt more important than usual?

4 comments

4 Comments

logan27119d ago

Honestly, I get the feeling, but I have to disagree a bit. That radio was broken, and you made it work again. The story is nice, but the real win is the fixed machine. If we focus too much on the "memory," we might forget that our main skill is fixing the actual thing in front of us. The story leaves with the customer, but a good repair lasts.

drew_walker19d ago

Saving stories" is the real job. We're not mechanics for objects, we're mechanics for memories. That's a way better thing to fix.

kai_ramirez3819d ago

But what happens when the memory tied to the object is a bad one?

brian_hart19d ago

My buddy fixed his grandpa's old radio last week.