Retired Plumber and California jobs
Sorry, that this doesn't really go anywhere, it's just a simple story with something interesting and frustrating:
Our water heater went out last month, but thankfully, we have a retired Scottish plumber who lives next door.
He actually tried to salvage the tank by suggesting fixes, before we finally decided it needed replacing.
He helped me pull out the old one and put in the new unit. He's 71, and did 95% of the work—I told him I wanted to do most of the grunt work, but he handled it very well. What a great person, though, huh? To fix a neighbor's water heater. He wouldn't accept any kind of gift or payment, so we baked something him and his wife. Actually, he told me he had replaced many of the neighbors' water heaters years prior.
Anyway, during our conversations, he spoke of a friend of his who had moved to Southern California in the 1950's. His friend said that when he first came to Southern California in the 50's, he could have taken on 10 jobs—there were that many jobs available.
Now, my water heater no longer suffers from trickles, but California continues to suffer from the "Trickle Down Theory." (I had to tie up the two stories somehow) 
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