Old professions and crafts

Sometimes it's good to browse around in collections of old photos, from before there were:
telephones
computers
cars for many people
supermarkets
long vacations
(many) airplanes
diplomas for most of the people
highways
mortgages for many people
TV's (or even radios)
cameras for non-professionals
etc.

The man on the picture I took from www.winshem.nl and I 'm curious if you know what occupation he has. He is a "wake-upper" and businesspeople (other people didn't have the money to pay him or didn't need him) hired a wake-upper to make sure they would get up in time for their appointments, for which they often had to make long journeys through the country. With his stick he knocked on the door until the client showed he had heard it and could pay him.

Now we have alarm clocks. Maybe the wake-upper's client had also one but wanted to be sure.

In those days there were also hot-water sellers (mostly women, there were also female wake-uppers, a Dutch novelist wrote a short story about one). As you can guess looking at the picture, there were no pensions for lots of people and also a wake-upper had to look neatly dressed considering the importance of his clients.

I'm getting old, finding these things important enough to post on my blog.