I posted this elsewhere but I’m interested in your thoughts.
Dear Board,
When I was a kid my parent’s moved into an apartment where they raised the 3 Murphy boys. It was 1967 and the apartment featured a black clunky rotary dial phone hard mounted to the wall. In 2004 my parent’s finally moved out and into the retirement townhome they always wanted. That phone still worked the day they left.
Contrast that with more modern times. In 1993 I bought my first cordless phone, a Sony with an answering machine. Through October of 2002 it was my only phone and in all that time I never once had a problem and I never had to replace a battery.
Fast forward to today. I replaced all of my phones except the answering machine phone with new phones because 3 new cordless 5.8 Ghz phones cost $ 2.98 less than 3 new batteries, $ 62.99 for the phones versus $ 65.97 for the batteries. I did spring for the $ 26.99 batteries for my answering machine/phone combo figuring it was better than spending $ 150.00 +/- to replace it.
Last summer I put 2 new 72 month batteries in my diesel pick-up after 7 1/2 years and they cost as much a piece as repowering 3 phones???
Am I the only one who finds a fundamental flaw in this use it for a couple of years and then replace it logic? Maybe it’s my background in the heavy equipment business, but I simply can’t get past the concept of running things to destruction?
Where I come from everything has at least 2 or 3 cost efficient rebuilds in it when bought new. You either swap out everything at 4 or 5 years when the value is high or you run it to absolute stone cold death.
As consumer’s today we are being conditioned to buy something and the first time it has a problem beyond the warranty period just toss it and buy a new one.
I don’t think we have the resources or wherewithall to continue on this path, yet the failure periods seem to shortening in duration?
Am I just an old **** or do other people see a problem in making faster, better, newer, junk until everything runs out?"
To me THIS is the reason for the “recession”. We are ALL sick and tired of buying CRAP. Time for some simple times. I really think this is the main reason for the “slow down”.
My oven broke a coupla years back. I easily identified that the igniter was the only problem and the stove worked just fine. I looked up the part in the manual, searched the net and found that I had to buy an ‘assembly’ that would cost almost $200. This assembly was spot welded to the frame and would have to be cut off, then I’d have to drill holes in the frame and the new assembly and either tap it out or bend my wrist in several directions at once to install that. I finally broke down and just bought a new one that was a small upgrade for $400. I ranted about that one for a good year afterwards…
As long as the recession is only that and doesn’t lead to more.
I spent most of my childhood with my grandparents who lived a very hard life through the depression.They came through with a work ethic and sense of thrift that just doesn’t jive with our current lifestyles.
With all the loans currently going into default,our national debt growing at over a billion dollars a day,our government trying to support more social programs than we can imagine and social {in}security wondering how to fund the next generation it really makes you wonder what the founding fathers would say if they could look at the USA today.
We live in the greatest country in the world but i’m afraid that we’re headed down a really rough road and truly fear what we are leaving our children.
My 2 cents and probably worth about that much.
Randy
When I was a kid you went to the grocery store and bought potatoes, carrots, apples , etc out of a bin. Pickles out of a barrel. You put your stuff in either a cardboard box you brought for that purpose or in an wooden apple box , also brought for that purpose. Peanut butter came in a jar with a handle on it so when you finished the peanut butter you had a mug for use in your home. that is the only type of glasses we had in our house. That’s all we could afford. Japanese oranges ( mandarins ) came only at Christmas time and were a carefully measured out treat. Produce only came in growing season. There were only certain time of the year you could get certain things. Not like now a days year round fresh fruits and vegetables.
I was amazed when ball point pens became throw aways. You used to buy refills for them. The new plastic Ice cream pails were a marvel when they came out. You could actually use them for things after you ate the ice cream, amazing! Plastic was just getting started and if you dropped it, it shattered. If your plastic cup got a crack in it, it tasted nasty. Man I wonder what chemicals they put in that stuff? Then came melmac dinnerware, wonder of wonders you couldn’t hardly break that stuff. prior to that a dropped plate was a broken plate. Heavy aluminum pot and pan sets were sold by door to door salesmen. Some of that stuff is still in use today. Nowadays pots come with non stick coatings that lasts about a year tops. If you check the warning labels on anything Teflon and non-stick except good old cast iron, it warns you not to store or use it near a bird cage. Why because it will kill the bird that’s why. next time your in a store pick up a fry pan and actually read that warning label. Really scary stuff. Lighters began to come as throwaways. Pretty soon more and more stuff had a expiry date on it. Nothing is built to last anymore that’s so they can keep selling us stuff we don’t need. I recently had to replace the fuel control valve or something like that ( can’t remember the name of it ) on the side on my carburettor for $210.00 . As I complained to the mechanic about it He said that it was new for that model year and replaced a 12cent spring that did the same job last year. It was a retro fit so he just threw the broken one away and hunted up a spring and the car works fine. charged me $5.00 . That’s another thing you don’t see now a days an honest mechanic. Back off! You can’t have mine!
As for a recession, I think you can put the blame squarely on outsourcing everything America makes to off shore. If a country doesn’t produce stuff to sell like it always has done in the past, That country is not going to keep up. My 2 cents. Rant over. sorry!
If I can fall back to fishing for a while I’ve recently renewed an interest in saltwater surf fishing. Not blitz fishing where anyone can catch a fish if they can get their line in the water but more of a just “chuck it out and see what bites” type of fishing.
It’s definitely not fly fishing, but if you have a good ear and are swift of foot you could walk the beach a bit fly casting and waiting for the drag clicker to click on that old Penn Squidder?
That is kind of what I am getting at, I mean have we really progressed?
We have so many modern trinkets to fiddle with that I sometime wonder if we know why we bother at all?
I grew up hard by a large city. When I was a kid once we were 50 miles from the beach I wanted the windows in the car open so I could catch the first whiff of the ocean. It mostly stunk of wet sand and dead clams and stuff but it meant we were getting close.
Nowadays though we live closer it seems we are further away?
I was thinking the same as I was walking through the Sportsman Show looking at all the $#!+. If it isn’t throw away it has a service contract that goes along with it so in the end; you HAVE to buy another one when it takes a dump because there is an early termination fee.
I was complaining to my buddies that it ticks me off that every decent pair of hiking boots I like costs $100+ and CAN’T be resoled! That seems like such a waste to me. The uppers are PERFECT but the soles are shot.
When I was a kid I was at the shoemaker almost as much as I was at the corner store stocking up on Bazooka!
we’ve replaced our phone every year for the past 3 years…cause the battery either does not hold a charge or the buttons get so cantankerous you need a hammer to push them… I am not old enough to remember Peanut Butter coming in a mug …Wish it still did though…I think that’d be kinda kewl!.
I do remember when Jelly came in a cartoon character glass though. This is a great thread…
The one hitting me the most right now is cell phone batteries there life span is one year tops if used on a reagular bases and all the stuff like chargers etcbecome hard to find almost as soon as you buy the phone, it wasn’t this way in the begging of cell phone popularity, but now it seems they have all electronics set up to burn out within a year, I’m all for the new better models of everything but don’t like how the compies have there stuff set up so you HAVE to buy new or pay ALOT to keep what you have going… wow lol , now I feel better…
An interesting discussion. Lots of things ain’t build like they used to be - - - And as far as trucks go I sure am glad. Autos/trucks are vastly more dependable than they were back in “The Good Ole Days”.
I like when you PA boy’s chime in in agreement with me!
Bam I hear you on the boots. My buddy has a pair of boots that he has had since I’ve known him and I know him 20 years this June. They are the ugliest boots you will even see but he uses them at his farm for working and messing around on the weekends. They have burn marks and diesel fuel stains and knicks from close calls with a chainsaw but the soles are perfect because every couple of years he gets them reshod with brand new Vibram soles. They are Chippewa’s if that matter’s to anyone and still available and made in the good old USA in Wisconsin.
When those boots finally do go away I think we’ll have a 3 day wake for them?
Alas, my shoemaker closed up shop because of all the “throw-away” footwear that people buy today. They tire of it before it wears out, toss it in the trash or the corner, and just buy more new stuff. I have a pair of Hanover wing tips that are 25+ years old, that are still comfortable after being “re-shod” many times.
Yes we do! But the last time I was at a Drive-In theater, they had removed those neat old metal speakers that you had to hang on the windows. They had a volume knob which was great! We used to park in the back row and put one speaker on either side and crank 'em up. We were the pioneers on “surround sound”. Now, you have to tune your car radio to a certain station and recieve the sound through your radio.
I’m 65 years old. (ouch that hurt) and I’ve seen quite a few changes in the passing years. Some are good and many are not. Here’s a few.
When I was 13 (52 years ago), my father bought a Montgomery Ward chest type freezer. What a novlety. Freeze the stuff you wanted to keep. Right now it sits in my daughter’s garage, still going strong after all these years, without a single repair. It’s been in constant use too. It doesn’t owe anybody anything.
I had a Kenwood 18 foot camp trailer that was built in 1958 that’s still going strong. Can’t wear the booger out. Tried hard. Gave it to my fishing buddy to use because he can’t afford to drive his $80K motor home out camping anymore. I have another 2000 trailer that’s falling apart already.
Bought a 12V Ryobi reversible drill two or three years ago. Battery won’t charge any more. You can’t get a new battery at Home Depot any more, but you can get them online for around $45. Almost as much as the drill cost. The rest of the drill is in excellent shape, but who wants to sink that kind of money into something that’s already obsolete?
Technology today has provided us with some great stuff that makes life a lot better than it used to be, but I sure hope that we can figure out how to make things last longer than a year or two. Our ravenous desire to own the latest and greatest whatchamadoodle fires the engines that leave some good technologies sitting in mothballs. We’ve progressed from vinyl, to reel to reel, to 8 track, to Cassette, to CD, to Bluetooth, and what’s next? I’m sure it’s on the drawing boards. And that’s just in an eyeblink of time. I don’t own a Z-Axis rod (yet) but I’m still using my old 8’ Fenwick glass rod that I bought back in the late 60’s. It doesn’t owe me anything either.
I have sat here and have read everyone’s post. For the better part of 30 minutes I have sat and thought of how I could add to it.
As my gerbil has limped on his wheel of thought I have thought of my grandparents, aunts and uncles and mother in law who has gone before us. I have thought of the tools they used the TVs we watched appliances used, clothes they wore; the crafts and skills they used and had and I feel slighted.
I would trade almost every tool and appliances I have for the quality and craftsmanship and value of yesterdays; for all of the reasons mentioned above.
Thanks again for the thread. It has brought back some very fond memories of very special people.
Did you ever use the free admission feature of your car in those days? My buddy had one that fit four and it DIDN’T have a glow-in-the-dark emergency release.
:shock:
Hey if Heritage and I are making y’all jealous; try this one on for size. One town not too far down the road from one of our drive-ins still has a band shell in the park AND concerts!
Bamb - my first car was a VW Beetle. No room to hide in there! Back then, 5 bucks filled the gas tank. The windshield washer tank was pressurized by the spare tire! There was no fan for the heater or defroster - in fact, there wasn’t a whole lot of heat anyways. No radiator (air cooled engine), oil bath air cleaner, and a screen for an oil filter. Wish I still had that car!
For what it’s worth, I surf fish quite a bit and I’m still using my dad’s and my grandad’s Squidders…must have been made in the 60’s. All I’ve replaced is the bearings and the drags (several times). I understand that Penn is discontinuing them:(
