Seattle, WA

It was with sadness that I read today about the closure of Adams TV in Fremont. Adams TV was founded in 1952 by the current owner’s father, a former radio repairman. The owner, according to the PI, said, “”We live in a throwaway society. It got to where I just couldn’t fight that anymore.”

The sad thing is that he’s right, we do live in a throwaway society. I know many people, for example, who throw out their old printer rather than purchase a new toner cartridge and who can blame them? After all, it’s usually cheaper to buy a new printer than it is to replace the toner cartridge.

There was a time when you could easily find a shoe repair shop but these days you’re lucky if you can find one in any given city. I can remember buying good quality shoes and taking them into the shoe shop to have heel and toe protectors put on. I can even remember taking shoes in to have the soles replaced. With the advent of shoe stores such as Payless people just toss their shoes these days and buy new ones instead. These are obviously not people who’ve ever gone without shoes. Not that I have, either, but my mother brought me up to appreciate quality. My mother, whom I lovingly refer to as “the Toucan Sam of the shopping world.” Honestly, the woman who can sniff out a bargain one hundred miles away. Mother taught me to shop at “good stores” like Macy’s and Dillard’s and Nordstrom’s. She introduced me to quality and she showed me how to shop the bargains. My mother wasn’t afraid to shop at the thrift store when money was tight. She knew that wealthy women and “good stores” often gave them new or gently worn items. No matter your means there are ways to dress well.

I have a lovely pair of black leather Cole Hahn shoes. Each winter I take them out and lovingly polish them. They were expensive shoes. I’ve owned them for a good 10 years and they still look fantastic. I’m not anal about them I just polish them at the beginning of each winter season, giving them a coat of Neatsfoot oil to protect them from the rain. If I paid $100 for them new then they’ve cost me about $10 a year. I’d say they’ve been worth the money, wouldn’t you?

Here in my little town of Pflugerville, Tx, there is an old lawn mower repair shop off of main street. The old fellow who works there reminds me of my granddad. He’s gruff and growly voiced and there isn’t a lawn gadget he can’t repair. Sadly, he’s one of a dying breed, the master craftsman. Sometimes I look at antiques and think about how well they must have been made and maintained to still be around. Then I wonder about what we are teaching our kids about the value of things. Not just in terms of price but also what it took to make those things, how to care for them and what they mean to us.

My mother is the buyer of forsaken treasures. She loves a good garage sale and can’t stop herself from buying the thrown-away possessions of little old grandmas who once spent many an hour painstakingly crocheting tiny little children to bestow upon family members as Christmas ornaments. Mother will wander into a garage sale and listen as grandchildren tell her how their granny had crocheted this or knitted that item. How this china had been their grandparents or that fishing rod had belonged to their great-grandfather and yet there they stood selling these items for a few dollars. Tossed aside for something new and shiny.

There was a time when people who couldn’t afford to go to college would apprentice with a master craftsmen, thereby learning a trade. These days if you don’t go to college your only option appears to be a lifetime of minimum wage or a whole lot of luck. There is a severe lack of pride in every day work. Remember when you could layaway big items and pay on them monthly? Now we just throw it on a credit card and bury ourselves in debt.

In the old days you bought “heirloom” quality pieces of furniture that would be passed down from generation to generation. These days a piece of furniture is lucky to last a few years.

There are times when I have to ask myself if we’re really advancing as a society or if we’re only kidding ourselves. What’s next? Disposable people? Perhaps that’s why a person can just walk in and shoot up a school? They’re failing to see the value.

master, craftsman, quality, value, throw-away, society, Adams TV, Freemont, WA