When I was a boy, one of my favorite things was to hang out with Grandfather in his large detached garage. It was his man-cave for sure, full of gardening and canning equipment, a small tractor or two, a .22 and a small-gauge shotgun, a detailed rain and weather log, onions drying on a suspended rack, pesticides that are banned today, and that corner stuffed with oil and gas cans with the smell of getting things done. I once looked around and said, "You know, I really like old things." With a big grin he replied, "Well, you must like the hell out of me, then!"
It all went after he passed, but I did save the Maryland Graham Wafers tin from the kitchen because it was always there, reminded me of them (I always wondered when did they get it?) and had the appeal of great midcentury commercial design. Today it is still in plain view and has a use again, holding the birdseed. Someone might also save it one day, but what about all the knotted, crocheted and embroidered fabric items Grandmother made that we have had on tables for decades? Without a story, and some little acquaintance with the person who created them, meaning is lost and they may be, too.
I admire antiques, but fortunately don't have the room for them. What I really am drawn to, and have quite enough of, are old pieces of little value that ordinary people bought and used. They have all been refinished (I guess all they had back then was varnish, but that is so ugly) and serve as well as they ever did.
Having two cassette decks with bad belts and many audio cassettes I didn't want to get rid of, I recently went to Just Audio in Middle River, Maryland where they not only repair old equipment but have a showroom full of that sort of thing, all restored. Talk about a kid in a candy shop. I traded in my two and when I saw a Kenwood deck from about 1985, I knew I'd made a new friend. It now sits atop a receiver from 1986 and they look like twins. The point of this seemingly unrelated story is that audio gear from the 1970s to mid-80s, the vintage stuff, is what I (more than) like. I could have gotten a new machine for only a little more, but that's not for someone who "likes old things."
And just sometimes, the old comes back even better:
Well said.
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