That old guy at the hardware store set me straight about soldering irons yesterday

I was at Ace Hardware over on Broad Street picking up a new drain snake (mine finally gave out after 8 years of abuse) and this older gentleman, probably in his 70s, overheard me complaining to the clerk about how modern tools just don't last. He laughed and said 'son, the problem ain't the tools, it's that you stopped learning how to use them right.' Then he went on about how he still uses a Weller soldering iron from 1985 and how he replaces the tips instead of buying a whole new station every few years like people do now. It really hit me because I've been guilty of just tossing stuff and buying new when a simple fix would do. I've got a broken lamp at home with a cold solder joint I've been avoiding for 3 months and now I feel kinda dumb about it. Anyone else had a random stranger at a store totally call them out on their repair habits?

2 comments

2 Comments

johns184d ago

Well I'll be. Here's the thing nobody's bringing up yet - that old guy probably had a whole bunch of broken stuff he fixed because he couldn't afford not to back then. My dad grew up in a house where if the TV remote stopped working, you didn't run to Best Buy. You took it apart and figured out which spring fell out. It wasn't some noble philosophy about sustainability. It was just being broke. Now we've all got enough money to be lazy and it shows. That lamp you've been ignoring for three months? You could fix it in fifteen minutes but you'd rather order a new one from Amazon while you're on the couch. That's the real wake up call.

johnfoster4d ago

My neighbor's been fixing his own lawnmowers since 1982 and he's the same way, just shakes his head at my pile of broken stuff. I've started watching him work on his mower just to pick up a few tricks.