One person who might conceivably belong to that way of life was the man who gave me a lift on my way to Gavrion this morning. (I caught the bus from Gavrion to the Chora.) Once upon a time, he was the vothros (septic tank) and water man.

Then, he drove his water-lorry around Andros, providing households with not very good water by filling up their cisterns when they ran out of rainwater collected in the winter. His second job, cleaning or building septic tanks, seems rather incompatible with the first. I remember witnessing him cleaning out a septic tank while his son watched on. Later, when the job was done, muck still splattered on his face, he asked for a drink, and happily swigged down a retsina, before driving off with his son to deliver water somewhere. No suggestion of a shower.
He's stopped both jobs now - he has fierce competition in a sleek water-lorry run by a neighbouring Gavriot. Instead, he mends cars, I think. He doesn't speak much, but I thought of how kind he was to give me a lift in his decrepit car. We didn't talk about the meltemi.