A year or two ago, Pepsico introduced a series of “throwback” sodas. Throwback Mountain Dew was one of my favorites and is actually one of the best sodas (we call it “pop” here in the midwest) I have ever had. The idea, or at least the marketing ploy, was that these were made with the old formula and used all natural sugar instead of all the high fructose corn syrup that is typically used in the recipe for the cola. I haven’t seen that stuff in a while now, so I am assuming its limited run has expired and we’re back to the “new” stuff now. The Throwback however just had that old fashioned taste that I remember tasting at my grandpa’s little general store when I was little. He had a big chest style soda cooler full of different kinds of soda in glass bottles. As a kid he would let me pick one out, I would open the bottle cap on the bottle opener on the side of the cooler and then sit there and sip the sweet nectar with Papaw. It had a distinctly “old fashioned” feel to it. The fact that I feel the need to link to a Wikipedia article on what a bottle cap or a bottle opener is amuses me and serves to reinforce my point here.
Now maybe I am just reminiscing about childhood memories and that association has clouded my judgement, but it seems to me that there is something special about how things used to be. Maybe I am just longing for the simpler days of my youth when I had no responsibilities, but is it possible that there is something to be said for the “old fashioned” approach? I had a conversation with a friend this week about this subject and I have been thinking about it a lot since then.I had this conversation with a friend and fellow blogger who writes the blog Heritage Breed Farms. We were discussing his series on homesteading and watching his cows graze and felt that a philosophical discussion was appropriate. I was retelling that I had heard a story recently that Americans spend less of their time and resources on food and shelter at this point in time than they ever have. Reportedly, it takes us fewer hours per week of working our jobs to put a roof overhead and food on the table than has ever been the case in the past. With that in mind, it would appear as though in many ways these are the “good old days”, but are they really? Why the fascination with the old fashioned? Are we really happier and better off now than we were? Is all that leisure time doing us good or harm?
We live just minutes away from one of the largest non-electric goods retailers in the country. Lehman’s Hardware in Kidron Ohio sells tons of non electric and old fashioned tools, home items and appliances. This place is an old-fashioned homesteader’s dream! All kinds of old fashioned, quality built tools, toys and supplies can be found under one roof there at Lehman’s. And it is BIG business. Go there on a Saturday in the summer time and you will see what I mean. The place is packed and they do volumes more mail order business on top of their retail business. Apparently the “old fashioned” approach is in vogue. Why is that, I wonder? Well let me take a stab at an explanation if I can.
I once heard a radio commentators talking about this very subject and his thoughts on the matter resonated with me. His point was this. Things that are good are often hard to do, and often things that are hard to do are good. This seems at first to be a simplistic approach to the subject, but I that his statement is more profound when you think about it a while. Good things in life often come at the price of hard work. And I would propose that to some degree hard work is in and of itself a good thing. The satisfaction of having worked hard to accomplish something gives a deep sense of gratification that few other things can compare to. Another benefit of working hard is the sense of delayed gratification that comes from working long and hard and waiting for the fruits of your labor. At our house home made ice cream is a good example. Sure I could go and buy a pail of ice cream at the store and just scoop and eat. Sure it would be easier. It would probably be cheaper too. The difference is in the gratification of making it yourself the old fashioned way. The “elbow grease” that it takes to crank that ice cream freezer just makes the end result so much sweeter.
So here is to springtime, gardening, hard work, slow progress, and the “old fashioned” approach. May you sweat for and earn your satisfaction this spring. Some things are just better done the old fashioned way.
tinkererstoolchest 