They Just Don't Make Them

The old dryer churns away in the laundry room, it usually needs two cycles these days to complete a drying job. It would most likely regain its full efficiency if I were to pull the ductwork apart and clean everything out of it.

The washer and dryer were bought soon after we purchased the Refuge, seven years gone now, the most time I have spent in one place in more than 25 years. They are cheap versions of a brand name that is made in great quantities in a factory overseas, bought more for their price in a time when we thought they should be adequate for the three of us for a few years.

From two adults and one child, three or four loads a week, they have gone to as high as six adults and four children and twenty or more loads a week. I replaced the mixing valve on the washer a couple of times, but since the water filter went in I haven't even had to do that. Not bad for a cheap set of appliances we only expected to have last for 3 or 4 years.

My dearly departed Rampage served me well for ten years and over 200,000 miles, that from a disposable vehicle that was barely expected to make ten years and 100K in it's lifetime. It was a cheaply made Dodge Omni variant built during a time where Detroit's cars were generally regarded as junk straight off of the assembly line. Between the Omni and the much-maligned K-car they brought Dodge back from the brink of insolvency in the late 70's and early 80's. Not bad for throwaway cars.

It was almost 20 years old when I bought it and it had over 100K on the clock then. By the time it went on to its final resting place in the boneyard it was almost 30 years old and had over 300K on it. I let it go because, heartsick over loosing a wife and having had more than enough with fixing TDP, I didn't feel like tracking down the persistent vacuum leak that was causing its carberator problems. I wish I had kept it now, it would have made a great Lemons car if nothing else.

I hear it all the time, how "they just don't make things like they used to" when we talk about cars, or railroad locomotives, or washing machines, or the myriad of other labor-saving devices that we use on a day to day basis. I've always thought that such talk was rubbish, that the machines we so casually dispose of these days are junked not because they have reached the end of their service lives, but because there is something newer and shinier, or more up-to-date, or trendy to replace it. We don't have throwaway machines as much as we have a throwaway society.

I guess that makes me an odd duck, driving a shiny new Mustang automobile but preferring wooden stocks on my WW1 and WW2 firearms. My old Chevy pickup waits patiently in the back yard for its restoration work to get started, and my old Harley sits in the shed waiting less patiently for the same. Maybe one day when I'm not the answer to so many peoples problems I'll have the time, cash and room to get them done. They each gave good service, and if restored would continue to do so.

They wait until then. They never failed me, I hope that I will not fail them.