Hard Rubbish

Mike’s
Pith & Wind cont.
.. moderately galling to find something one had thrown out as worthless selling
for a handsome price at such a market. Or not. I don’t know – presuming
I have the cash to squander I have the same dilemma at markets as I do at shopping
malls, perhaps even worse – one doesn’t generally bargain for something
new, whereas if you don’t bargain for something second-hand, you feel
you’ve definitely been ripped off.
Roaming the streets at twilight in a suburb about to be relieved of its hard
rubbish causes one to question our materialistic lives. It’s not just
that the stuff that’s being thrown out could furnish a modestly sized
suburb on its own; it’s that most of it is still in pretty good nick,
and the stuff that doesn’t actually work for whatever reason, could and
would, in another not so distant era, have been repaired.
Yes, repaired. People used to do that. If their shoes were wearing out, they’d
take them to a shoe shop and get them re-soled, re-plated, (that’s another
story), or even re-stitched. If the bakelite radio stopped in mid-sentence,
you could dash down to the nearest repair shop and get it fixed. These days,
if your car gets damaged, the panel beater simply replaces the panel without
even contemplating the possibility of beating the old panel into submission.
They should be called ‘panel replacers’.
In my day (sorry, it had to be said) back in the old country, (sorry again),
a man’s car could be in service for thirty or more years and still look
like new, with not an original part remaining. Funnily enough, I can see the
return of those days looming as a very real possibility. When you think about
it, it’s the ultimate in conservation and environmental-friendly behaviour.
And wouldn’t you rather that those brazen arseholes that ring you at all
hours, wasting everybody’s time trying to sell you something that you
don’t need, were serving an apprenticeship at some useful occupation,
like plumbing, radio-repairs, panel-beating etc. and with no access
to a phone? It’s a dream..