When I started my career, the a/c I operated had already been ridden hard and put away wet for a minimum of 25 years.
There is an entire generation of us out there that had the good luck to operate just the sort of machinery you describe.
If you think a squawk sheet like that is bad (which it is) then you wouldn't believe some of the things that "Joe Lighty" had to do out there to survive in decades past.
I should add that I very much enjoy your anecdotes, they are the type of stories that motivated many of us to get into what has obviously turned out to be a very different aviation universe.