Two things influenced this blog. First, I started building bunk beds. I'll probably do a blog sharing that experience since they're full-over-full of my own design. The act of build the bed because they're what I wanted reminded me of what may be a dying breed.
My deceased wife's uncle collected antique cars when he was older. He had a barn filled with almost twenty cars all made before 1929. Vacation was the time when he went around the country looking for authentic parts. When I asked him about his hobby and the accompanying skills he told me that he owed it to the Great Depression. In the Great Depression, if you wanted a bicycle, you collected the pieces and made one. If you were lucky enough to have a car and it needed a repair, you found or made the piece and fixed it.
I thought about that conversation today when I was designing and building a full-over-full bunk bed. I need the bed. A full-over-full bunk would be extremely expensive if you could find one. A regular bunk bed is pricey. I didn't think a thing about sitting down, figuring out how to make one, and starting the task. How many people still do this? You don't often see a young person riding a homemade bicycle today. Car and motorcycle modification are still popular hobbies, but I really wonder if people still consider going out and making something that they need or fixing things.
When we lived in Ireland we had about £250 a month on which to live after paying our rent. That was about $312.50. We obviously didn't just go out and buy things we wanted or needed. There was a coal strike one year. Like over ninety percent of the country, we heated our home with a coal and turf fireplace. In fact, we heated our water with a back boiler built over our fireplace. With no coal for sale, turf was in great demand and stores were running out. I would have to go to a number of store just to get enough turf to get us through the night. I designed and built racks on my bicycle - we didn't have a car - so that I could carry a hundred-weight (125#) of turf on my bike. I would ride down to the quay and watch for turf barges being unloaded onto trucks and then follow the trucks on their delivery route. Since Dublin is well over a thousand years old the streets are so narrow that it was easy for me to keep up with the delivery trucks. When they would stop I would buy as much as the proprietor would allow and ride home. Sometimes I was as much as twenty miles from home, but I had enough turf to keep us for several days. What's the old saying? 'Need is the mother of invention.'
We almost lost our second daughter before she was born. She was situated in such a way that she was kicking her mother's organs and her mother's body was trying to abort her. After several weeks in Dublin's National Maternity Hospital Diana wasn't allowed walk or take a bus, which were our normal modes of transportation. We could really use a car, but we couldn't afford one. We had saved almost £300 to go to the continent on holiday (vacation). I spent the entire amount buying a fourteen year old wreck. My good friend and neighbor helped me completely take the engine apart and put it back together. We banged out the dents with rubber mallets. It was a Vauxhall Estate Car (mini-station wagon). It was so small that it took only four cans of spray paint to paint it. I was so proud of that car.
I realize that throughout my life I have been like Diana's uncle. If I wanted or needed something badly enough, I made it. In 1984 I wanted to take a vacation. I hardly had enough money to get out of the state but, since the state line was less than five miles from home, we wanted to go farther. We bought a used van. I put a bed in the back, mounted an old television for the kids and added interior lights and curtains. We were able to sleep in the van which extended our vacation all the way to Florida. I wanted to learn to fly fish. I made my own flies. I needed storage for my tools. I made my own tool cabinet. I wanted a garden tractor. I found the pieces and made one. I only ever had one new car. That was 1980. Otherwise I bought used cars and repaired them as needed. All of our vehicles ran for hundreds of thousands of miles because I would rebuild carburetors and do all of the repairs. Nothing was thrown out until it was unusable.
Over the years I never thought of this behavior as being out of the ordinary. It was what had to be done. To me it was just the way life was. Looking back I realize that most of my friends didn't build and repair things. It wasn't until relatively recently in my life that I realized that I should probably have been embarrassed because I didn't have new things. I'm thinking that few people in my generation built and repaired as I did. Is that still true today? I have strong doubts mostly because the indoctrination and propaganda of corporate America has a high percentage of people believing that they must buy, buy a lot, and buy often. It has them believing that they must always have the newest of everything. Of course that means that all of the 'outdated' items have been dumped into landfills.
I have a Samsung S5 cell phone. It is now only five or six years old, but every since it was two years old the Verizon people have been telling me that it is horribly outdated and should be replaced. It is an $800 piece of electronics filled with precious and rare-earth metals. No one will fix it. It is disposable because for only $50 a month I can have a new phone. The salespeople just look at me and shake their heads. One of the Verizon reps in our hometown of Columbia Falls, Montana calls me every few months to see if my phone is still alive and whether or not I'd like to get a new one.
Well, there's no doubt where this is leading. As I contemplated my behavior as a build it/fix it type of person and began to wonder how many of us there are left today, I realized that the alternative to my behavior is the 'damn-the-cost-throw-it-away' type. Capitalism demands excessive consumption. There must be ever increasing consumption to keep capitalists in business. Of course keeping them in business makes them very rich, but that's another discussion. Capitalist do not like people like me. I fix things. I improvise, make it, or do without. Am I as far from the norm as I think?
Before anyone thinks that because I've felt that I must make and/or repair everything I had a rough life, I am very happy with my life. There were things about it which were quite difficult, but they had nothing to do with my make/repair behavior. Truthfully, looking at the mess we're in today, I'm rather proud.
The US produces 254 million tons of trash a year. We recycle or compost 87 tons of that. Each person in this country produces approximately 4.40 pounds of trash a day. The US alone produces 10.5 tons of plastic waste a year. We only recycle about 1-2% of that. 14 billion pounds of that goes into the ocean each year. We're killing the planet.
Currently Americans pay $104,000,000,000 dollars in credit card interest alone each year on over $1,000,000,000,000 in credit card debt. The average American has $6,375 in credit card debt. This doesn't mean that credit cards are, by nature, bad or evil. Because Pamela and I are nomads and I want to simplify paying monthly bills, we put everything on a credit card. But I pay it every month. We have no credit card debt. But mega-corporations have turned Americans into consumer machines. The corporations and corporate owners get richer. The people end up poorer and with massive debt.
Think about it the next time you pull out the plastic. Ask yourself 'do I need it?' Do I really need to upgrade? Do I really need the newest model? Could I fix the one I have? Could I do without? Do I need a bigger house or fancier car?
Yes, I guess I am a part of a dead breed of person. Yes, I live a very simple life, although I have everything I want and/or need. Who could ask for anything more? I'm very happy with this life and will continue to make it or fix it as long as I can. If this isn't you, why don't you try it. You might just find that you're a lot happier, a lot less in debt, and doing your part to save the planet
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