Throw-away Generation

Today is my last full day in Portland until my return permanently here in mid August. I'll be on airplanes flying back to New Orleans most of Saturday and until about midnight Saturday night. So I am not going to be able to respond to any mail until at least Sunday. Take a vacation. I do hope your husband will feel better. It's sad to see a loved one suffer so much.

One thing I had to do today was to try to find a replacement for a missing knob on an antique cabinet I have. It was damaged a bit in the move from New Orleans, including the loss of a knob from a roll-up drawer.

This is a Victorian piece, so under most circumstances I should be able to find a replacement or a suitable alternative. Well, in New Orleans the odds are greater (I will try there as well if I fail here) since it is an older city and one with copious amounts of antiques. Portland is a "new city" with far fewer older pieces of furniture and fewer antique shops that deal in "spare parts". Anyway, I have the name of a hardware store here that supposedly collects those kinds of parts and sells them.

There is much less interest today in antique or even old furniture. It seems that the Scandinavian/Ikea look, that of veneers and particle boards, is what most people treasure today. We now are a nation of people who prefer the glitzy, synthetic material, throw-away furniture to the handmade, solid wood carved furniture the almost extinct furniture maker used to churn out everywhere.

But this makes sense in that the U.S. and much of the rest of the world disposes of things rather than seeking higher quality that lasts indefinitely. We are a throw-away generation. Our TV's, microwave ovens, phones, even cars have become items we dispose of quickly in search of "newer" and more "stylistic" replacements. It's hard to think of things we buy to keep permanently. Change, change, change is the mantra because modern technology throws change at us so much.

I place no value assignment as to what is better, a foot in the past or both feet in the future. Hmmmm Where are your feet placed in all this nonsense about throw-away generations? Do yo have many throw away items and do you prefer those to the old stolid things that we used to keep almost forever?