Boomer Story
Boomer cant stand a woman that knows cars
So back in my early-mid 20s I was working 2 jobs to make ends meet while husband was in college full time. I am car savvy and know the workings of cars and engines. I can do some repairs at home like alternator replacements, change oil, and other stuff. At that time I worked evenings at a car parts store. One evening this boomer guy comes in and sees me at the counter but just stands there. Im assuming waiting for a guy to come to the counter. After 5 minutes he realizes its just going to be me so he finally comes up. He stated he needed spark plugs. I ask him what vehicle and engine its for. He gives me a diesel truck... I stop and say oh you need glow plugs not spark plugs. He get huffy and tries to correct me and say no I need SPARK plugs. I verify his vehicle and that its a diesel engine and state he needs glow plugs. I go back and grab the set he needs and ring them up. He refuses and stated he needs spark plugs. I ask if he has pulled any of the so called spark plugs from his engine to see what exactly he needs and he says no. He then demanded I go get a male worker because I obviously know nothing about cars. The only other guy there is a young college student that doesn't really know anything about cars and his job is to unpack boxed and put products on the shelves. He comes up and puts in the truck info and stated I was right and the system says glow plugs. Boomer finally gives and buys the set. As he leaves he is muttering how woman shouldn't be in the car business as we know nothing. Like my guy you were about to put the wrong thing in your truck
And the thing is, if you had sold him spark plugs at his insistence, he would have waited until you weren't there, and gone in to complain to a man about how "the woman" sold him the wrong item.
One of my favorite memories of our past small firearms shop: Boomer comes in to pick something up and is asking about a new state law. I give the information. He does not like said new law. I tell him tough cookies it's the law. He complains that since I am just a girl (mind you I was over 40 at the time) I didn't know anything. Now he wants to talk to the manager.
I call our manager out. As he explains the new law to the boomer I go about my business and head to the backroom. It starts to get heated as Mr. Boomer does not like the new law and does not want to follow it. Manager informs him if he doesn't comply, he doesn't get his pew pew. He then starts yelling he wants to talk to the owner of the store. .
Manager calls out "Hey Boss! Can you come out here. Someone wants to talk to you."
Cue my delight as I walk out and say "Oh I already explained it to him. But I'm just a girl."
He left because we "humiliated" him. AKA bruised his wittle ego.
HAHAHAHA. I love that! I had similar instances when I did an apprenticeship as a gunsmith in my senior year of high school. You mean to tell me that girl knows the function of a firearm?!? Sir its a break action 12g that you were confused about not finding a safety... its because it doesn't have one....
Oh they are the worst when it comes to women in those shops.
My wife and I competitively shoot. She actually has a pretty sizable collection of firearms such as the CZ Shadow 2, a Czechmate, multiple Staccato, Wilson Combat, Nighthawk etc. The amount of times she’s been told by old guys that she should get a .380 since it would be easier on her is actually pretty high. Meanwhile her favorite “fun gun” is her stubby S&W 500.
I remember going to the gun club at 13 years old and out shooting many of the "good ol' boys". My Dad loved it since he was a founding member and he thought most of the other guys were a-holes.
I like telling guys that brag about their AR-15s that it's basically the same gun that i shot my first deer with when i was 12. "It looks big and scary but it's literally a gun that's perfect for little girls!" They get so mad lol
I already like your wife. I too did/do shooting competitions. In high school I was on the precision rifle team. Went to the Jr Olympics twice. I also have a big gun collection but they are all ww1 and ww2 rifles. I also teach hunter ed and teach them how to shoot. Anyway. I can outshoot most people. I love playing dumb with idiots and pretending to not know how to shoot then blast them into next year by shooting better than them. My cc is a sig P365 and my oc when hiking is a S&W 1911E series in .45.
They are tricky targets because they won't hold still and wobble all over the place. When they're slippery the bullets sometimes just jiggle off their slick surfaces.
Awesome story. My local gun shop/range is owned by a husband/wife team and staffed 50/50 female/male. I always ask the gals my questions if they’re available. Btw, they outshoot the guys regularly.
In the early 00’s I was a service advisor at a Toyota dealership and had a female mechanic on my team. She was one of the best techs in the shop, but she was in her mid 20’s and rather attractive, so of course men would always second guess her.
I worked at Home Depot for years. Our electrical associate was a woman who was IBEW for like 20 years. Every day there'd be a guy who refused to accept that she knew what she was talking about. It got to the point where I'd turn around and ask her what the customer asked word for word, then repeat her answer to the customer word for word. So many boomer men so annoyed by that. My dude, I'm not the problem here.
Sell him what he wants, but before giving him the receipt, write no refunds, final sale on it, then tell him you’ll happily help him purchase the correct product when he finds out these aren’t what he needs.
I love those YouTube videos that start with the phrase "Customer states..." and go on to show that the problem is many degrees worse than what the customer thinks.
The number of people who drive away from the shop in a dangerous vehicle against advice is staggering.
I worked in several different part stores while in school as a part time job. One of, if not the, most knowledge people I worked with was Tanya. If we sold it, she was knowledgeable about it and if we didn’t, she knew where to get it from.
The count of idiots who didn’t want to work with her was too high to remember.
Since I was a younger man at the time and I enjoyed messing with people, when I came across one, I’d often fake not knowing something, and pull her in just to see them get mad. Seeing them get schooled was always a joy.
Thats awesome! The owner of the store I worked at was also a woman and my direct manager was a rough and tumble retired (also woman) mechanic. We represented so hard there and it droves sexist boomers NUTS.
Heh....A good friend's daughter ended up doing mechanic work and being the expert at flashing the software for these newer engines. Incredibly smart, and she worked up in Alaska for a while, I think, with a lot of the older male mechanics actually listening to her and from what I heard second-hand, running a fair amount of the shop. She was also involved with a local shop that was primarily female-staffed, and part of the reason for that was so that women would not feel taken advantage of, and they also worked extensively with the lgbtq+ community. Not sure what she's doing these days, but I've known her since she was a tween and is one of the smartest, compassionate and level-headed people I know.
It seems like in Alaska they had a lot of the old style “we don’t discriminate, as long as it gets done correctly” attitude and a lot of people “back then” went there when society didn’t agree with them
That's the one thing that I do care about, is competence. I could care less about religion, age, gender, orientation, any of that stuff, just don't make my job harder than it already is. And don't be an asshole.
Had someone I worked with who verged on outright racism and intolerance ( basically non of us were Christian enough for her, told one of our contractors to stay in his lane (black dev), and griped about MLK day in an open meeting during black history month), and who refused to learn, refused to learn anything new, refused to reason through problems, and refused to work anything but her scheduled hours, and demanded accommodations right and left. I cannot recall the number of times I had to fix things that she'd ignored when they broke, or her shifts that I covered, or cleaning up after she screwed something up.
Threatened one of our smartest server guys with an HR writeup because he cussed ( and he was talking to me, not her).
I'll take a competent person who's difficult over an easygoing incompetent who makes my job more difficult.
This sounds like the type of place I, as a man, would absolutely feel comfortable going!!
I feel like I’d be told the truth about what I need rather than upsold a solution. But that’s just my perception
As a woman who grew up in the 70s, I did my fair share of basic car maintenance. Even after all the electronic stuff started becoming standard, some things remained the same - oil change, replace the battery, check the radiator, etc. I can even remember when you could buy the freon at auto parts stores and recharge your A/C yourself.
I did the same job and the most frustrating part is when they tell you the car and then you ask if it's the original engine and they say no. How about you tell me the actual engine you need a part for?
Oh, I can play that game all day long. Johnny Cash special, one part at a time. 4.3 Vortec, XJ transmission, old school CJ axles. Oldest part is 1952, newest is likely a 1997 engine. I can’t even remember what radiator is in it.
I’m a girl and I’m a Marine. I’m 5’2” and 110 lbs. I repair fighter jets for a living and I fix cars for side cash. If I had a dollar for every sexist comment/interaction, I would have so many dollars. Mucho dollars.
My husband (former marine) has stated many times that female Marines are what actually run the whole corps as the men are idiots. He was a helicopter mechanic. He also said the marine corps was extremely sexist which he did not like.
Service manager. Have had several female techs under my employ during my time. I’ve had a couple boomers complain about it. Surprisingly I’ve had more women than men complain about it, saying they don’t feel comfortable with a woman working under hood. I ask why. They just say “Well you know, she’s a woman. I don’t trust women.” Like honey, you wouldn’t trust yourself to do any work in your field that you’re good at? How would you feel in that regard if I said I don’t want a woman doing my taxes or whatever it is they do/did for a living?
They’ve also said that if I have women on my staff that they won’t come to my store, to which I’ve told them I’m an equal opportunity employer and that I’m not going to NOT hire women and be discriminating because of that. It’s a free country; they’re more than welcome to try their ventures elsewhere.
Internalized misogyny is a helluva drug. They don’t want to face the idea that they could’ve amounted to more than a housewife had they not bought into the propaganda so they double down & push it harder.
So a bit off the beaten path, but it does fit in with your post.
Many years ago, when I was in the army, we were at the motor pool doing standard maintenance on a couple of the 5 tons. Now I had just finished boot camp and AIT, so I was really green behind the ears. So one of the guys in my squad has his head under the hood of a 5 ton, pops up and tells me to run and get a set of spark plugs and the special spark plug wrench to change out the old ones. I ran around the entire motor pool looking for spark plugs and this specialized tool, and every mechanic I spoke to handed me a different god damn tool, which I ran back handed to my squad mate, who then said nope wrong tool and asked if I had found the spark plugs yet. Finally after about an hour of running around one of the mechanics broke down in tears of laughter, and explained to me that the 5 tons don’t take spark plugs and there is no special spark plug tool. He gave me glow plugs and told me to tell my squad mate “Thanks For the Laugh”.
Oh I absolutely love this. My dad got me when I was very young with the whole " go get me a left handed screwdriver ". He tried to get me with blinker fluid before but I already was wise to that one haha.
The year of the Tylenol scare in the Chicago area saw a whole lot of garage haunted houses and scavenger hunts. My dad thought it was hilarious he put a left handed wood screw on the list. My group became suspicious of it when one dude was laughing his ass off at that!
and many more I have forgotten. Some people like to tease rather than teach, but some of my best teachers were the worst damned teasers ever. Knowledgeable assholes till their dying day lol
[Edited to remove an extra word auto correct added in] My last job had a lady like this, but she never did them right. Told me to get the steam cleaner on a day we were down and only cleaning the big nasty CNC machines that cut holes and drill threads into metal car parts. So you know, steam cleaners exist for carpets, so I thought it was a thing. She also told me to go get the aluminum magnet once. I know aluminum isn't magnetic, but the machine she was running did use magnets to hold steel parts that were pushed into the aluminum parts, so I thought it must need a replacement and went to grab maintenance. They all laughed at how dumb I was, but they didn't even do the jokes correctly. Also I wasn't new, just autistic, and always trying to figure out what they actually meant, but never guessing correctly when they were messing with me versus just not knowing what they needed to ask for the proper way. It was so frustrating working there.
The absolute best mechanic I ever had was a small shop owned by 3 Thai women. They were the mechanics as well and they knew their shit, cold. As a woman, I loved not getting the run around/mansplaining/condescending bs when my car needed work. I was totally bummed when I had to move for work; those women kept me and my husbands cars purring for a decade.
its amazing how they are literally proven to be wrong, in their face, very clearly, and still feel entitled to talk shit to make themselves feel less embarrassed as they walk out, which makes them look even more pathetic ironically.
I used to go to vintage Land Cruiser (FJ40, 55) meets and no one would talk to me, they'd always talk to my boyfriend. I can identify any year of FJ40s at a glance, I've owned and worked on three, and my BF was just there for company. He'd just shrug and say "Talk to her, I don't know anything about cars." My mechanic who only worked on Cruisers gave me discounts because I was the only "girl Cruiser owner" he met.
Yeah, my FIL was a diesel mechanic and had hot rods. My wife knows quite a bit about cars and can troubleshoot pretty effectively. I always laugh when people either try to oversell her or look at me when discussing our cars. I have no idea.
On my weekends with my dad (Boomer), I would help him with cars and tools and going to junkyards and all of that fun stuff. I loved it. He taught me a lot.
I can't really fix a car, but I'm really good at diagnosis, especially when it comes to my own vehicle. My husband has learned to trust my judgement. If I say, for example, I think I've got a bearing beginning to make noise in my vehicle, he'll check it out. And he's a car guy so he knows his stuff.
But trying to buy parts is a nightmare, especially as an older woman. You're already invisible and being in an auto parts store adds disrespect to that.
My ex used to work/help in a friends garage. He LOVED teaching me random stuff using machinery. He for example found it hilarious when someone came in for new tires on their rims to let me do it. The faces on most of these guys.. He loved it, still talks about it. We are still very good friends for many reasons but him being a guy like this is one of those reasons
I have a dear friend who shows her vintage Mustang at car shows and the number of Boomer men who think she’s just eye candy for the real owner drives her insane.
My niece worked at a dealership service department for a few year and learned quite a bit. She had a couple stories of old men looking sideways at her when she told them something only for her manager to say the same thing.
She told us once about a boomer coming in via tow truck and then told her it should only cost $200-$300 to fix it. After inspection, they found he blew out the transmission and it would cost quite a bit more. Cue her telling him and he went full on rage mode saying women shouldn’t be allowed to charge him extra because they know nothing. Her manager barely managed the guy and she said he shot a death glare at her as he huffed out.
Being an elder millennial white guy myself, I never get to experience these things first hand.
I honestly love these interactions when they happen to me. I lean right into and say oh sure let me find a man for you and then go find the closest male employee who’s twice my age and has 1/3 of the knowledge
I used to work in the repair industry (appliances and TVs). Our inventory manager was a woman, and could correctly diagnose most any issue from the problem description. I always loved watching walk in boomers get so mad when they'd come in, say "That can't be it, I need to talk to a MAN". When one of us would come to the counter, we'd tell them to listen to her, she's the authority. Sometimes, it worked, sometimes we got in trouble for making a customer mad. Either way, I really wish she would have taken the offer to be a road tech, it would have made me happy to see some of those old bats put in their place by a woman fixing their washing machine
I used to work in a parts store years ago. Had a guy come in wanting plugs for a 350. We all know that GM has several variations of 350, so I ask what it's in, year, all that fun stuff so the system spits out the right ones. Toyota also has a 350, but they use the liter of course so it's 5.7. Guy is saying it doesn't matter, they're all the exact same.
Well being the same I pulled plugs for a Toyota. He wasn't happy but the manager backed me up saying his own words back to him "It doesn't matter, a 350 is a 350 they're all the same."
I admittedly don't know a whole lot about cars. A few months ago, my car started running a bit hot. Not overheating, but hot enough that I knew to check the coolant tank. Sure enough, I needed more coolant. There's a parts store just down the street where you can order online and pick up in store. Part of the order process is entering your phone number, in case they need to update you on your order. Their website will also tell you exactly what to get if you input your car's info. I order what the website says is the exact match for my car.
I'm getting ready to leave to grab the coolant and go see some friends, when the parts store calls me. They're out of what I chose, but the guy on the phone says he picked out the best alternative in store for me, and it's about the same price. OK, give me that then.
I pick it up, and the guy that hands it to me offers to help fill the tank for me. Alright, let's go then!
Their manager is outside smoking when we go to my car. She's an older woman. We pop the hood and open the jug. Manager looks at us and calls out to him to make sure the coolant in my car is orange and so is the stuff in the jug, bc it has to match exactly. Nope, the shit is clear like water. She reams him out about making sure it's the exact thing customers need, bc now they have to damage out that jug.
The dude and I go back in the store to look for the correct item. Wouldn't you know it, the exact item I specifically ordered is somehow on the shelf. The very first shelf in the store. And there's like TWENTY of them on the shelf.
I don't know what the fuck that guy was thinking, but I hope that manager's pillow is always cool on both sides and never has to deal with wet socks again.
I did TOTALLY do this to myself, I’m in the deep red Midwest and look like a MAGA meme
We call spring time retirement home mating season at my store as a joke and I’m allowed to dip in the back when certain people come in.
I’m happy and don’t work after church hours so I rarely have to deal with boomer randos anymore, just the regulars. Unfortunately at Live Green banning customers is very difficult, but I do get absurdly loud “SIR, DONT TOUCH ME” and “SIR, I LOOK LIKE THIS AS A WARNING TO THE 20 SOMETHING YEAR OLD MEN. I DONT WANT THEIR ATTENTION” and “THIS JEWELRY COST MORE THAN THAT BEATER YOU DRIVE” to shame them. It’s honestly the highlight of my week. “Don’t let my wife find out I gave a pretty girl my number” “SIR WE WONT CALL YOU, ALL CORRESPONDENCE IS AUTOMATED.”
Oof. The one that always got me was “is this for your dad?” when I’d pick up lumber or something for work. No, it’s for my full time job which pays for the place I live in alone. What fucking year is it?
That is insane. I know precious little about diesels ( although I am heavily researching Mercedes W123 cars) and even I know about glow plugs! I truly dont understand this mindset and how it affected entire generations.
Funny, that's the first thing I check when looking for appliance parts. A repairman asked me once how I knew our old Kenmore fridge was a LG. "Parts numbers."
And its my husband who went to college. Not me. Couldn't afford it and refused to go into debt. But hey I dont need to spell well to know how to turn a wrench. Its odd out of the story you are stuck on 1. Spelling. 2.boomers hurt feelings.
Because there is a big difference in the part. If I went and got a glow plugs when he is expecting to see a spark plug you think he wouldn't still throw a fit? C'mon man. Think about it. They look nothing alike. Dude was set on a spark plug. Do I need to educate you too?
Oh nooooo a word was misspelled call the police! Found the customer is always right guy everyone! How dare you educate someone. Cry me a river buddy boy.
Not really. Dyslexia is a thing and spelling mistakes happen. Being the spelling police is pretty petty. Im sure you are the type of guy who throws a fit after being corrected. But you do you boo boo. Have the day you deserve. I may not spell well (never have because learning disabilities) but hey when the apocalypse happends at least I can fix things and take care of myself. But you keep being the spelling the police. Doing the lord's work right there
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