Things of Yesteryear

Copyrighted Material

Some people would say change is inevitable and change is good; without it there would be no progress, they say. I agree that change is probably inevitable, and that perhaps some change makes life a bit easier. I sure wouldn’t relish going back to carrying wood into the house to fill the wood bin, and carrying coal to fill the coal shuttle. Nor after enjoying the comforts of gas heat, would I relish tending the old stoker fed coal fired furnace that was one of my household chores when I was a boy after becoming old enough, and big enough, to handle it. Watching the movie "A Christmas Story," brings back memories of the coal furnace when Dad would rile the firebox to the point that smoke escaped into the hot air plenum and found its way into the house through the heat ducts This did not make Mother happy at all. I think she appreciated the evolution of the gas furnace, seeing as how it lightened her house cleaning chores immensely.

Sitting out in the open on one of those model 21 Massey-Harris combines amidst the dust and grain chaff that irritated the eyes and skin, is not something I would like to experience again either. I also lost a portion of my hearing to the roaring exhaust noise emanating from the engine of a diesel powered tractor, and spent many a cold miserable days out in the open, operating said tractor. So I suppose something can be said for the benefits of the nice sound-proofed, climate controlled cabs of today’s modern machines. And I also must admit that writing this blog on a keyboard where I can overtype mistakes, is much easier than on my old manual portable or electric typewriters where every typo either meant starting over with a new sheet of paper, or having a page full of whiteouts. So some change, indeed, is good.

But I’m not so sure I agree with the premise that all change is good. The demise of the corner service station is one of those changes I really lament. Last winter when I returned home from a trip to Tucson (I live in Idaho) my car was a filthy mess and had to remain so for quite some time because of below freezing temperatures. I had encountered some wintry conditions between Cedar City and Fillmore, Utah, where the roads were either slushy or snow packed. This caused a dirty driving condition, what with passing motorists splashing dirty slushy water infiltrated by sand and salt all over my car.

There was a time not too many years ago, when I could simply take my car down to the local service station operator, and for three bucks, he would wash it in a nice warm 70 degree environment and wipe it dry before putting it out again into the freezing weather. Or, better still, if he had an empty bay, and business was a little slow, he would allow me to bring it in and wash it myself. But, alas, those days are gone. We now pump our own gas at C-stores, get our cars lubed at Grease Monkey or Jiffy Lube, and wash ‘em in open air bays.

Gone are those warm sanctuaries where we washed our cars in winter, which means we now leave them dirty until a day when the temperature reaches 32 degrees or above before we can make them clean again. It’s either that, or face the prospects of having the windows frozen shut, or the door handles frozen so that you can’t enter your vehicle; or in a worst case scenario, the door freezes to the molding, so that when you open your car door, the molding is ripped away from the body.