BANGOR — The actor who played know-it-all postal worker Cliff Clavin on the TV show “Cheers” tells a Maine group the nation’s manufacturing base has eroded as society has devalued the skills that allow workers to make and fix things.

John Ratzenberger told a crowd at Wednesday’s annual State Chamber dinner in Bangor that kids in his day spent their free time tinkering with things — building tree houses, taking things apart, fixing bikes. He said those days are now gone and that younger generations no longer have the foundation of skills that places value on making things.

The Bangor Daily News says Ratzenberger told the group the strength of U.S. manufacturing “keeps the world free.”

Ratzenberger is spearheading a campaign to increase the number of skilled workers in the U.S.