Back in the day they would have been HAMMERING roofing nails, now you use an air nailer, right? Back in the day, they would have hauled the bundles of shingles on their back, right? Now you have that elevator thing on a ladder to haul them up. But I gotta say, I see the same thing. Guys that should be thin, are fat.
Aside from the martial arts part, it sounds exactly like my childhood. We're probably around the same age. Regarding "smear the queer". Literally we played it just about everyday and in ANY place. Sometimes if we didn't even have a grass field to play on, we'd just ambush the kid that we all couldn't stand. If THAT were to take place nowadays, I'm pretty confident the kid would have gone home crying to his parents and they would have sued the school. Floor hockey...definitely the best gym sport. Regarding kids and obesity nowadays...one thing that I've noticed in recent years is that all the kids who are pretty serious at soccer are still almost universally rail thin. You almost have to do a double take since I've become so accustomed to seeing obese kids. Basketball definitely comes in a close second. I doubt the kids eat all that much better than their peers, BUT if you are practicing a sport that you are good at AND all of those hours spent playing are hours that aren't spent EATING. Makes a helluva difference.
Same way with the farmers around my property, most of them are fat. They're getting to the point with their GPS guided seeders and combines that they won't even need to steer the end of rows.
I can imagine Ocommunist coming upstairs to retire for the night, twisting up a blunt joint, and finding out later she ate all the stuff he wanted. Without his prompter, he might even get mad, and say "you ate up all the hog jaws! You ate up all the colored greens. I like colored greens smothered in butter Michelle! Damn! Guess I'll call downstairs and have the Secret Service go out to get me some local pit bull dog, or some ribs, and of course, a sack of ghanji! Damn Michelle, we're supposed to be keeping costs down! Now the Secret Service has to go out and spend about $100,000 just 'cause' you ate up all the goodies little miss 'healthy' beeoch! It's hard being king!"
It's still damn hard work. The last four out of five roofs we did the men humped the shingles up the ladder. Depends on the supplier and job if they use the conveyor or a fork lift drop. I think using the nail gun takes more energy because it makes the job go so much faster. But I ain't tough enough to do it and I damn sure appreciate my men.