DON’T FIX THAT!

DON’T FIX THAT!

I was just a kid during world war 2. Having reached maturity, (i.e.as in

physical deterioration,) I look back, certainly not with an unbridled

“Those were the good old days) attituded, but still with a kind of Nostalgia for some of the elements of my childhood.

Around the corner from our apartment was a hardware store;

“Schneiders.”

Stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s existed only in the minds of future

entepreneurs.  The idea of “Home Improvement” stores or even what

we now call “big box” retail stores such as Walmart and Target was the

purview of dreamers and science fiction writers. 

And lest you think we were a primitive society back then, let me tell you we DID

Have electric toasters, irons, coffee makers and sewing machines. 

(Well, some of the more affluent families among us did!)

And before I become blinded to the forces of sentimentality about the

 Nostalgia of the “good old days,” let me tell you that given the average

income of that era, those things we bought were, based on

affordability,  far more expensive than they are today.  And the notion

that “they don’t build them the way they used to” is true, the fact is

today’s products are far more reliable and long lasting then in the

1940’s.  Sorry fellow codgers,but  I remember a slogan for Pontiac

Automobiles: “Built to go a hundred thousand miles.”  Most of today’s

Cars, if  their manufacturers used that phrase today, would be out of business.

But let me return to Schneider’s Hardware Store.  Proprietor Jack

Schneider packed that little shop with more stuff that one could

imagine.  And he could tell you how to use it, whether it was paint, a

 lawnmower, a tool or some hinges.  Jack’s store had a sign in the

window that modestly put forth the claim: “If I don’t have it, you don’t need it!”  And he supported that claim on an almost daily basis catering

to a lower middle class population.  If you wanted to start a project, ten

minutes with Jack would not only get you supplied with the hardware

needed, but verbal instructions on how to do it.

When mom’s electric toaster would only toast one side of the bread, there was no thought of disposing of the toaster.   Jack would have it in order in a day.  If the iron wouldn’t heat up you’d Simply take it to Schneider’s, and it would be good as new in an hour or

Two.  Usually the cost of these fixes was measured in small bills, or

some pocket change.  Of course, Jack was probably paying about

twenty five dollars a month for rent, and he and his family lived in an

apartment in the back of the store.

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A few years ago, the CRT screen on my first computer simply flashed

one day, and stopped working….no image.

I questioned my coffee buddies.  Who should I take it to, to fix it?

My question was greeted with sympathetic smiles.  “You take it to

the curb, and you buy an LCD at the local electronics store.” 

“You mean it can’t be fixed?”

“Oh, yeah.  It CAN be fixed.  The average repair person charges about

$50 an hour.  The average repair TIME is about three hours.  You can

replace your sixteen inch CRT with a 22 inch flat screen for about a

hundred.”

Reluctantly, I GOT it!  And I heeded the advice.  But I felt like somehow

it was wasteful to do this. 

During the war, we saved (the word

‘recyling’ had not yet been invented.). Used clothing, tin soup cans,

even used solidified cooking fat.  We had a bottle in the kitchen with enough in it to make candles for a Christmas Nativity scene.

A few months after replacing my computer screen, my countertop

microwave failed.  There was a man around the corner who was an

electronic repair man.  Our phone conversation was brief but

nformative. He would be willing to inspect and evaluate the microwave for a minimum price of $50.  If it could be repaired, it would probably take  a couple more hours at $50 PLUS PARTS.  If he deemed it could not be repared, the initial inspection fee was non refundable. I am not good at math, yet I sensed discomfort with this proposition.

Montgomery Ward was still in business.  That day I purchased a much improved model microwave for under $100. I was learning what it was like to be living in a disposable world.

A few weeks ago, our Mr. Coffee pot stopped working.  Without a

second thought, I was off to Target, bought a new unit.  I can justify this

act by informing you that the model I purchased had the identical

glass carafe as the original.  So now I have a spare.  And the deceased

coffee pot was interred  without ceremony into the eternal care and custody of my

garbage service.

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At the same time, the science of medicine refuses to acknowledge the truth human disposability. (AKA MORTALITY.)  Every day they come up with new ways to repair and extend our existence. But, unlike the toaster, NOT our usefulness.

Is this is a good thing?  hould it have limits?  Is an

expensive repair fee which relegates one to a few more months of being strapped into a chair and drooling on ones self really a benefit?

Is an emergency surgery which guarantees only a limited extension

of acute excruciating suffering a  boon to human kind? Might it be more

beneficial to the planet and its mortal inhabitants to prolong the lives

of toasters and coffee pots, and simultaneously, ,our limited natural resources, than to extend those final days of misery, anguish and pain to our fellow human’s?  Just a question. 

I wonder if Jack Schneider’s great, great grandchildren are now performing heart transplants.