I fall back to "place". Whether it's fixing things for people I know (sometimes getting paid), or preparing a garden, improving the house efficiency, or just going out to talk to people and try to get to know their places, I have to let go of the nostalgia because it was about fantasies and dreams and other people's future (buying or selling them) and stealing my time and attention. I suggest you talk to people about CNA-adjacent work instead. My mother was CNA, then LPN, then RN, and yes, it will kill your back. The System of systems is not letting up on paperwork and data entry, and as such, isn't making life any easier for people who need care or those providing. It seems to me that there is a vacuum of advocacy for patients who don't understand the systems and rhetoric of their own lives. ChatGPT and the like can never have empathy for the working folk: only the automated button-pushers and privileged who have been immersed in the language of forms.

Veterinary services? The pay sucks, but the animals are usually smaller than lifting people, and you can sedate them for an xray. Now, there's a whole big business of pet insurance...don't get me started on that as farm nostalgia.