"Peter Dohm" wrote in message
...
| While there does appear to be some merit to your basic complaint--that
most
| people under about thirty, and who have grown up in major cities, have no
| experience in building or repairing anything--they were also right that
you
| were looking in the wrong place unless they also install tires on split
rims
| or on wire wheels.
|
| Nearly anyone in a tire store would have known about inner tubes and their
| basic sizes--which I believe are a little like the sizes of sweaters and
| socks. They would be a slow selling item in most places, and would
probably
| need to be ordered in; but they will be in use as long as there are wire
| wheels and split wheels.
|
| Peter

It was a PepBoys auto super center, with about 6 maintenance bays and all of
one wall dedicated to tire and wheel sales. I had bought them there before
about 6 months earlier. But since none of the employees present at the time
believe auto tires were ever equipped with inner tubes, they wouldn't even
check their catalogs. I went down the street to a local O'Reilly's.