This Plant is Closed - Go Away! Quiz

Answer: Fotomat clerk

The one hour photo service that we commonly see in many drug and "mega" stores really cut into Fotomat profits. Then "instant" digital photography wiped out the paper filmstock format, and accelerated the decline of drop off photo shacks. In an effort to survive, Fotomat also offered VCR rentals and online photo service. The company was bought and sold at least twice before it finally faded away in 2009, along with thousands of employees.

Donuts, rental cars, and clean clothes have NOT been replaced by digital facsimiles. At least not YET!

Answer: milkmen

Early delivery of dairy made perfect sense, back when many families didn't own cars. Dairy items (and sometimes, eggs) were left on the front porch - often in an insulated box - and would stay fresh longer in the cool morning air. But as America became a nation on wheels, it was just as easy to purchase one's own dairy items at the store.

By 2005, home milk & dairy delivery had dwindled to near extinction. But a 2014 NPR story said that home delivery is making a comeback in several states! History repeats itself. Remember those milkman jokes?

None of the other choices would be hawking their services (particularly home delivery of garbage) in the wee hours of morning!

Answer: newspaper reporter

Projected growth in the newspaper reporting field is -6%. That's right - minus six percent! Today everything is instantly accessed on your smart phone or other device. As newspaper sales plummet, so do newspaper jobs.

Do you even get actual newspaper delivered to your home now? Have you seen the Sunday newspaper in recent years? Not so long ago, in the U.S. it was a massive roll of newsprint, with numerous sections: news, sports, home & garden, magazines, a huge comic section, lots of coupons. These days it's a mere shadow of its former self. Great Caesars' Ghost!

Answer: service station attendants

Once upon a time, a team of (mostly) men and women would come out, fill your car's fuel tank, check your oil, water, tire pressure, etc. But the 1970s fuel crisis and attendant (hehe) higher prices ended all that! Most Americans have probably never seen an actual filling station attendant.

Surprisingly, attendants were still required by law in Oregon and New Jersey. Drivers in those states can be fined as much as $500 for fueling their own cars. State lawmakers cite safety concerns; detractors have insinuated that New Jerseyans and Oregonians may be too stupid to pump their own gas. I don't want to fuel an argument here, so I'll let it go.

Doctors - house calls? Maybe the White House staff physician makes house calls! And I suppose the wait staff (I can't say waiter/waitress any more) at a "greasy spoon" can still provide all the "gas" and oil you want - but you get the idea.

Answer: locomotive fireman/stoker

Steam locomotive boilers grew rapidly and soon overwhelmed a single engineer; thus the need for a man to keep the fire stoked with coal. On American rairoads, the fireman was nearly always on the left side, tending the fire, gauging the water levels, and watching his side of the right-of-way. They were often called "bakeheads", due to their physical proximity to the locomotive firebox.

When diesel engines replaced steam boilers, the fireman became obsolete. But they remained on payrolls for years, often doing virtually nothing. The terms "fireman" and "stoker" are still used in US and UK Navies respectively, even though coal-fired vessels are long departed. Another one bites the coal dust!

Answer: riveters

Welders, riggers, and sand hogs are vital members of modern construction crews. But before welding was widely accepted, before high strength bolts were fabricated - riveters assembled all the girders and trusses, working ever higher as structures grew.

Often laboring as tightly-knit four man teams, the heater "roasted" rivets in a coal fueled oven until they glowed white-hot. Using tongs, he would then throw - yes, throw - a rivet, sometimes as far as 30 feet - to the sticker-in. The sticker would catch the still glowing mushroom-shaped rivet in a bucket, quickly stick it in the aligned holes of two girders, and step aside. The bucker-up would brace a heavy steel wedge against the rounded head of the rivet, holding it firmly against the work. On the opposite side of the work was the riveter. He would press an air hammer against the protruding "stem" and drive the hot metal down until it formed another mushroom capped head, locking the steel beams tightly together. The crew rotated positions frequently to reduce fatigue. Imagine doing such work 600 feet (or more) in the air...in winter?

Mohawk Indians were particularly renowned for their fearlessness and skill on the high iron.

Answer: watch repairers

Watch repair jobs are projected to decline 26% by 2024.

There was a time when broken things were repaired, not discarded. Watches and clocks were often handed down from generation to generation. But the rise of rampant consumerism denounces repair. The advent of inexpensive digital watches started the decline of this speciality. The advent of smartphones, with their "alarm clock functions" hastens the end. Many people don't even wear a watch these days. But if you do - oh sure, you might need to take your watch to a mega-store to have a new battery put in, but there's not a lot of skill involved there.

Of course, if you own a Patek Philippe, you probably have a watch repairer on retainer. The six Philippes I found on line ranged from $9950 to $63,500. Used!

Answer: farmer and ranchers

Continued improvements in agricultural equipment & methods, and the trend toward more mega-farms will result in the loss of about 18,000 jobs in this field.

Answer: carhops

Carhops first appeared in 1921 when entrepreneurs noticed the increasing popularity of the automobile. People "on the go" often preferred a fast meal delivered carside by waiters/waitresses, rather than a more time-consuming "sit down" lunch.

The actual term "carhop" is first documented for 1937. Male "hops" were common until WW2; women dominated the field thereafter. Why? Military service, of course. But business owners also discovered that the primary customers (men) purchased more when served by a woman. Many drive-in restaurants featured roller skating carhops, wearing attractive uniforms, in order to speed up order delivery times. And yes - to draw in the adolescent male with cash to spend.

A few locations - notably Sonic Drive-In - still feature carhops. But when drive-through restaurants became common in the 60s and people became more rushed, the popularity of "hops" began to fade from the scene. Carhops remain a part of American nostalgia, as seen in movies such as "American Graffiti" and TV series like "Happy Days."

Answer: all of these

A December 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics report indicated that commercial diver jobs would increase by 37%, and physical therapy aide and assistant positions by 40%. And for those who want to aim high (no - not the Air Force), wind turbine technicians will zoom from 4400 in 2014 to 9200. An incredible jump of 108%!