Everything Old is New Again

My kids have an unusual fascination with antiques and have begged me to take them to a number of local antiques shops and flea markets this summer. I find it all quite amusing because the items that most interest them are not ancient relics but everyday objects that were a part of my formative years. First, my 11-year old decided that he wanted to spend his birthday money on a manual typewriter and he quickly located one on e-Bay that cost only $1. Even though it was listed as a “portable” typewriter, it set him back $45 to be shipped to our North Carolina home. The child was thrilled with his purchase and quickly became the envy of his friends for this one-of-a-kind treasure. The sounds of clacking keys and the carriage return bell floated throughout our house from his upstairs bedroom and it transported me back to my first office job when I was still in high school. The struggles I had with carbon paper and “White Out” are now distant memories as I sit at my MacBook Pro typing this blog post. Funny, I don’t feel that old.

The second object of my sons’ desire was found at an antiques emporium in Columbus, Ohio while on vacation with family. With only about $12 between them, the boys struggled to find that one item that would be both brag-worthy and within their price range. All at once, they saw it – the black rotary telephone with big, square buttons along the bottom for multiple lines – for the bargain price of $10. They quickly completed their transaction and ran to show their cousins this amazing find. Oddly, I can barely recall the last time I had a telephone that was connected to the wall. With all of today’s technological advances, it make me chuckle to see the thrill my kids get from obsolete hardware.

Antique store treasures look like something out of a 1970’s office

As the old saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” With the proliferation of TV shows like American Pickers and Pawn Stars, I believe that this adage has never been truer. Consignment shops are springing up around town like never before. There seem to be yard sales in our neighborhood every weekend. And even before the waste management folks have a chance to collect the bulk pickup items at the curb, there are scavengers in pickup trucks sorting through people’s junk in front of their homes. It’s funny, but I can’t remember a time when I lived abroad that I saw a garage sale, much less bulk pickup. I have a hard time picturing my former European neighbors throwing out or selling any antiques that may have been in the family for years. It’s even more difficult for me to imagine them sifting through someone else’s refuse and making them an offer. With the way the Germans, Swiss, and Luxembourgers guard their privacy, this practice seems a bit extreme and intrusive. In my experience, it was a rare occurrence to be invited into someone’s home, much less go through their junk.

They say that “everything old is new again” and I see evidence of that fact when reading through my collection of women’s magazines that promote repurposing old furniture or household items for new uses. It’s very trendy to reupholster a worn-out couch or chair in a fun, new fabric and colorful paint to give your home a facelift. And this renaissance is not just happening to household items, but to clothes, shoes and accessories as well. Thrift shops have become the cool place to shop, according to my kids and certain popular rappers. Who knew that I had been hip my whole life and never knew it?! Again, I don’t remember seeing this type of DIY project while I lived abroad. In Venezuela, it was very affordable to pay someone to refurbish your household items or alter your clothing. I found an amazingly talented tailor who helped me salvage my whole wardrobe after losing some post-partum pounds. There’s not a lot of incentive to do it yourself nor are there resources and supplies, since stores like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Michaels are absent from the market.

I never fully understood the expression, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” but I knew full well that my family was very thrifty. During my childhood, I would have characterized us as serious penny pinchers, bordering on being tight wads. I remember the horror I felt when my mother proposed that the 7th grade cheerleading squad wear whatever pair of navy blue shorts they had instead of investing in new, matching outfits. Did I mention that I never had my own clothing until I left home to go to college? Everything I wore was a hand-me-down and not necessarily from my only sister (I had 3 older brothers, too, who had some very ugly clothes!). My mother has a museum-quality collection of clothing spanning several decades in her attic. It does not really matter if the articles fit her current frame, as she is ready with her sewing kit to make alterations the moment these clothes come back in style…and they always do. My father is no better, but his obsession is not clothing but nails, screws, pieces of wood, and bubble wrap. He can tell you a long and detailed story about every item he has nestled away in the crawl space beneath the house including when and where he acquired it.

One of the oddest memories I have of my grandparents is that they only flushed the toilet after each of them had used it.  I suppose that having started their married life together at the time of the Great Depression made a huge impact on them and how they economized. They rarely threw anything away and loved finding a good bargain. My grandmother would even document her savvy shopping in her diary entries, “saved 30 cents on Clorox at the A&P.” After all, “a penny saved is a penny earned.” How many times have we used that expression to encourage thriftiness in our families and community? In today’s disposable society, where everything is plastic and it is common to simply throw things away when they no longer serve their purpose, is it any wonder that our kids feel entitled to upgrade to the latest and greatest whether a pair of trendy shoes or a smartphone. That’s why I love it when my boys seek their grandfather when things break because “Grandpa can fix anything!” And it’s true most of the time, including the kids’ sized umbrella he stitched back together after it was blown inside out during a blustery storm.

In my family while growing up, this sense of frugality was ingrained in us at the dinner table, as it was taboo to throw out food. We were, after all, charter members of the “clean plate club” although I think they tried to revoke my membership on several occasions. I knew every trick in the book to avoid eating the food on my plate – hiding it in my napkin, storing bit and pieces in the crevices of the dining room table, or spitting it out in the toilet when I was granted a bathroom break. Dinnertime was a struggle for me as I stubbornly sat alone in the darkened dining room, after everyone had finished their meal, with chipmunk-like cheeks full of food I would not swallow. I couldn’t help but think about how horrible China must be since their poor children were desperate to eat this food that was making me gag. Leftovers were a staple at my house and seemed to be the most frequent dish on the menu rotation. As a mom today, who is not the best cook, I understand the challenges of producing a stellar meal night after night and the need to serve leftovers every now and again. In Venezuela, any leftovers were incorporated into a hearty soup or a brunch omelette that was often tastier than the original meals.

Recycling in my community today is strongly encouraged and there are many programs set up to make it convenient. I’ve got bins to store my recyclables and even a rule book of sorts about what can and cannot be recycled. The waste management truck comes to my home every two weeks to pick it up. In Venezuela, I don’t recall anything being recycled, unless you count the treasure-seekers who may go through your trash after you throw it out as a recycling program. Most people of means understand the incredible need that exists among the masses for clothing and household items and those items are often given away instead of being tossed. However, plastic, glass, and newspaper is all thrown in the trash and I find it a constant challenge to get my Venezuelan visitors in the habit of separating out those recyclables at my house. At the opposite end of the spectrum was my experience in Switzerland in the early 1990’s, where my roommates took the idea of “reuse, reduce, recycle” to a whole new level, recycling everything that passed through their kitchen. Newspapers, cans, paper, glass, and even the aluminum tops from their yogurt cups – it was all sorted in distinct plastic receptacles around the apartment. It was so foreign to me and a bit overwhelming that I’m afraid I was non-compliant at times because it was a lot to internalize.

I suppose that moderation is the key to finding the right balance of holding onto the antique while embracing the modern. Certainly, we can refresh and repurpose to make that which was old new again. And I suppose to a certain extent this feeds our inner cheapskate while being quite trendy. So I’m off to the antiques store to see what other treasures we can find. Perhaps a record player…