Not being used: it’s not a style, it’s a way of life
Published at 5:00 am on Friday, September 20, 2024
I didn’t realize that a recent CNN story would try to make me feel guilty about the annual tradition of father-son bonding.
Every summer Gideon and I would cut a series of radio commercials for my day job employer (a local farmer’s co-op), just for fun. where, and sell other things.
(Kids, don’t try this at home. No, seriously. A radio station released recordings we made at home around 2011 that showed the sound qualities of a dying calf. in a hailstorm, so we’ve gone up. – tech studio.)
Now CNN is reporting on TikTok’s so-called “underconsumption core” (which, as a catchphrase, is a lot less “calf dying in a hailstorm,” in my humble opinion).
Much to the chagrin of major retailers, consumers fed up with the buy-’til-you-drop mentality are revolting.
Rather than buying trendy items to “keep up with the Joneses,” they amass a reliable collection of sensible fabrics, clothing, cookware, electronics, personal care products and some such as to last for years.
(Or at least until the hordes of factory workers and businessmen they put out of business come looking for them in modern tar and feathers.)
I have to admit that I have been ahead of this scene for decades.
The Tyree family has added a toilet snake or two here and there over the years, but the foundation of our kit is what my wife got from her grandfather before his death in 1993.
At the beginning of our married life, my brother and his wife gave us an old armchair that we called Momma Kittie’s Chair because it was the only place our wife could sit. when he was always safe.
We still have Momma Kittie’s Chair, even though Momma Kittie gave up her nine-year-old life more than a quarter of a century ago.
We have new kitchen towels, but they share space with the old ones so you can read the fine print on the medicine cabinet.
When my sneakers are worn in public, I wear them while working on my treadmill. When they are at work mowing the lawn, their tongues make mud from passing cars.
Having survived a lifetime of busts, busts and bad investments, I am now less likely to make unexpected purchases. (The sales pitch for “Wouldn’t it be neat?” meets “As long as your definition of ‘neat’ is ‘adding to a pile of junk that will end up tying me under it.’” )
I do not desire to be pride, greed, anger, lust, gluttony or laziness in my place, so why do I want to be the envy of my neighbors?
As for those new to jumping on the underconsumption core bandwagon, I wish them well, whether their goal is to get out of debt, declutter their homes or reduce their carbon footprint.
I just hope they will remember that the furniture dealers, jewelers, florists and other vendors who support this wonderful newspaper are people, too. (Polite people don’t say that sticking to a prescription for glasses written by Ben Franklin is probably not a good idea.)
Like the characters in the cartoon “The Pluggers,” I’ll keep going. Of course, if I save enough money through my thrift, I can go on vacation.
Perhaps to the Great Plains, where – my tried and true encyclopedia informs me – endless herds of buffalo roam freely.
I’ll check the weather forecast for hail first.
Danny Tyree accepts email responses at tyreetyrades@aol.com and visits his Facebook fan page “Tyree’s Tyrades.”
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