Golden Oldies #6, Good Memories and a Rant!

Top row:
L. My grandmother Cora Fidelia, her husband, Clarence, aka Bucky, a judge and the mayor of our town sometime in the 30's or 40's.
M. My grandmother again, all tricked out in her Sunday best! This is sometime in the 20's.
R. My mom and dad. Don't you love the hats men used to wear? Hombergs were the fashion of the day, and no self-respecting man went out without one.

Middle row:
L. Mom and Dad (were bras out of fashion then, Mom?) before they were married.
M. Bucky, surveying his domain.
R. Mom wheeling me down the main street in 1941. There were roving photographers back then who would snap a photo and then attempt to sell it to you. The back of it is printed as a post card. Obviously she bought it and I suppose most mothers wouldn't be able to resist. I don't know how much it cost back then, but I suspect it was no more than 5-10 cents.

Bottom Row:
L. my mom, in her flapper hat, circa 1920-25
M. I think it's my uncles' daughter with his first wife. I guess Mary Jane's will never go completely out of style.
R. My mom and her sister

Speaking of men's hats, in my home town there was a wonderful store - The Fife Street Shoe Shop - where in addition to repairing shoes, purses and luggage, they steamed and blocked hats that had gotten stretched or had sustained water damage. I loved the smells in that store: leather, polish, steam, wet felt. Of course those wonderful aromas had to compete with the odors of feet and sweaty socks, because this was a "repair while you wait" store. They had small cubicles you could go into, take off your shoes, hand them to the clerk who would bring them back to you in a few minutes with new taps, or heels, or a repaired strap, what ever they needed. Only the most intricate repairs required a longer stay in the shop, and most repairs could be accomplished in a short time. Why is it nowadays, when you take shoes or purses into the shop for repair they have to keep them at least a week? I think the repairmen want us to think that it is a lot more difficult than it really is so they can charge exhorbitant amounts for the repairs. I had a small piece of luggage with a zipper off track not long ago, and when I took it in for repair, they wanted $17.50 to LOOK at it. That was their minimum charge! I had gotten the luggage on sale for no more than $25-30, so a charge of $17.50 was hardly warranted for something with a little age on it.

Maybe they charge so much because most of us don't have our shoes or anything else repaired any more. If they break - we toss them. We have truly become a throwaway society, and nearly everything we buy has "planned obsolescence". Some of us are convinced that we must have the lastest toy, the strongest technology, the largest gas-guzzler, the newest model of everything. Some appliance repair stores around have closed for lack of business (except for warranty repairs). I have a beloved old word processor which is going bad; the monitor is rapidly darkening. The two closest places I can get it repaired (assuming they can fix it) are more than 200 miles from here. I really want to get it repaired, but they don't make it easy, since I have to ship it and pay a minimum, whether it can be repaired or not. So I may be forced to throw it away and learn to do my proposals and letters on the computer. My children have been warning me that one day I would have to learn how to do it, and sadly, they were right!