I Am A Lousy Consumer

I recently bought a new office chair. Not a big deal right? Except the one it’s replacing I’ve had for 35+ years. It should have been replaced years ago.

There is nothing special about the old chair, in fact I probably got it on sale way back when.

I don’t buy things for myself all that often.

My parents grew up during the depression and they passed some of those values on to me. When I was a kid we didn’t have much money so every school year I would get one new pair of pants and a couple of shirts, usually from Montgomery Ward. That pair of pants had to last the entire school year. When I got home from school I would change into last years pants so I wouldn’t get the most recent pair dirty, or worse yet, tear them.

And I was growing so the pants from the year before never fit all that well by then. Sometimes the newer pants wouldn’t fit all that well by the end of the school year either. But I wore them. It’s what we did.

We took our lunches to school in brown paper bags. Our parents would buy brown lunch bags in packages of fifty. I remember buying lunch bags later in life, when I took my lunch to various places I worked over the years. It was rare that we ever bought “hot lunch”.

I remember one kid in grade school who would fold up his paper bag after lunch, put it in his pocket and take it home and use it over and over again. That one bag would last months. I’m sure I thought it was weird at the time, that’s just how some families were when I was growing up.

I really love this new chair. It’s a gamer chair so it has a lot of support and is very comfortable. It’s that old, “I should have bought a chair like this years ago. I’m sure my back and neck will thank me now.”

I was on such a high from buying the chair, that I jumped onto the Costco website and purchased some new pillows for my bed. You guessed it. I have no idea how long I’ve had the pillows on my bed but they are all so flat that I have to stack three of them together to have a decent pillow. That changes now.

Oh my God! A new chair and pillows? I must be going nuts.

If I have to purchase things, I like to buy quality things that last. Then I make them last longer than they are supposed to. I mean why else would I still be driving my van with 276,000 miles on it. I keep wondering if I can make it to 300,000?

I believe this is a philosophy I got from my folks. Always try to use cash and take care of things so they last. It helped set me up for an artists life, because for many years I didn’t have much money to get by on, and somehow I did. I still don’t have all that much and that’s fine. I don’t want or need all that much.

Don’t worry, that’s it as far as shopping for a while. I should be set for the next 10-15 years, at least.

THE ANGRY FILMMAKER RANTS

Do I feel bad about being a lousy consumer? Absolutely not! It is not up to me, or you, to support this consumer based economy. Years ago corporations and the government decided we would no longer be a manufacturing economy. They felt it was too expensive to make things here and sell them. They chose not to pay living wages and support the people here. It’s one of the reasons so many people live from pay check to pay check.

If these large corporations don’t wish to support us, I have no problem not supporting them.

My philosophy has always been, buy used when possible, and always buy local if I can.

Later this week I’m dropping off a fleece coat to have the zipper replaced, and I want to see if they can sew one of the fingers on my gardening gloves back together. They are still in good shape except for where the seam came undone. Why throw them out and get new ones if they can be fixed. Plus I’m giving a local person some work.

So yes, I will be a lousy consumer as long as these big companies and our government choose not to invest in us. And remember, it is a choice they made. I’m fine with the choice I have made.

Remember, if you don’t like what I’m writing these days then unsubscribe. And don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

To the rest of you, thank you for reading, subscribing, and supporting me and my writing and filmmaking. I am continuing to heal from my recent health issues. Thank you all for your kind words.

Don’t let the bastards get to you!

For your viewing/listening pleasure, here is a link to me reading an excerpt from my story, Incident At Arrah Wanna. About the time I got busted at church camp for smoking pot. I was fourteen and not much of a role model, even back then. It’s only 3 minutes. Please check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLEjFvSeh_A

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