SLJ: lol. Yeah, I just saw that too. Score two for our venerable Dr. Drib!
Oh, and on the topic at hand, I was talking with my dad today after Sunday dinner about this thread (he's interested in the genre too) and one of the things that came up, which I didn't even think about, is the rise of cottage industry. Since 90% of our stuff comes from overseas anymore, a complete collapse of global trade would mean the survivors be stuck having to manufacture their own stuff as you couldn't huff it to the local store to buy it anymore. So since there's already a lot of people out there doing paid and unpaid hobby work covering pretty much every field of expertise, I can easily see a lot of artisans and craftsman (assuming they survive) rising up to fill the void created by the collapse of the current system by whatever means the disaster takes.
The only one who might not show up right away would be cobblers and show makers as I don't know of anyone who does this anymore either as a hobby or otherwise. Well, except maybe the handful of leather smiths around the area. They might take up shoe making, but that's a big *maybe*. Oddly enough, another thing that'd come into full time use would be antiques. Seriously. If there's no outside source for dishes, plates, etc, all those old antiques, including oil lamps, darning balls, and so on would suddenly be in high demand as daily use items. I mean, they were once before, so having them return to that use is not all that unlikely.
Anyhow, just a few more things to think about.