The Creed of our Forefathers

     An encounter with a customer today at REI where I work prompted me to ponder some things.  An older man came up and asked if I knew anything about bicycles, to which I replied that I knew some.  Heavyset and gruff, he was one of those very straightforward older white men who probably led a successful life by ordering people around.  He told me he had an older "race" bike, which was "very nice", but he was contemplating selling it so he could get a more comfortable bike.  After asking him some questions I figure out he isn't really wanting something built for maximum comfort and that a typical flat bar road bike or performance-oriented hybrid bicycle would do fine for him.
     At this point I ask what I always ask when in this situation:  "Do you like your bicycle?"  Usually I get an affirmative "Yes", to which I then start explaining that you can typically do a lot to a bicycle to help it fit your needs, and that even if a lot has to be done, it usually doesn't cost more than a brand new bicycle.  This approach of course doesn't always work; trying to turn a mountain bike into a road bike and vice versa simply won't yield results as good as starting from scratch.  But, if something like raising or swapping out handlebars, or getting different tires, can zero in on what someone wants out of their bike, I am always happy to open that option up to them.
     The older man didn't seem opposed to the idea, so I went into my usual spiel, in which a main part is me explaining that I love old bicycles and that I prefer to keep old bikes on the road rather than add new bikes to the pavement and trails.  There's a few reasons for this, and one I often list is that it conserves resources, as we aren't throwing away a potentially (or perfectly) functional bike for a brand new hunk of aluminum, steel and rubber, which is probably of lesser quality than what the person has already.  When I say this, a big smirk creeps across his face.  I notice a large, silver revolver stuck into a holster on the back of his belt.  His black ball cap has the word "VETERAN" stitched in gold thread across the front.
     "How veeeeery green of you!"
     I'm sort of shocked by both the comment and the amount of venom in his tone.  It insults me, which is odd as I agree with environmental issues, at least in philosophy.  Mentally quick on my feet, and angered at his statement, I explain that both of my grandpas grew up in the Great Depression and they both hold onto things.  They keep old things running and try to conserve what they use, because it is expensive to do otherwise and just unethical to waste.
     His tone softens and he agrees that he doesn't like to throw things away.  We ended up reaching a compromise, although I think he still thought of me as some kind of "environmental hippie."


     As the day wore on, this event bothered me.  It bothered me that the current mindset of a lot of people is to go out and buy buy buy.  Has the consumerism that has run rampant since the 1980's finally snuffed out older American values, such as conservation and making do with what is given to us?  Are these ideas now branded as controversial, left-wing and liberal by those who may have at one time embraced them?
     Although I am only twenty-three at this very moment, and not that old at all, I was brought up to not waste things.  My family didn't have a "clean your plate" rule at the dinner table, but I know from experience that what my mom made for dinner was what we ate, end of story.  My dad did almost everything that had to be fixed or built by himself, which saved the family a lot of money.  Even on TV shows which either praise or lampoon traditional American values, you get phrases like "We can't do that, it's wasteful".
     Now we have the Kardashians.  Now we are living in a time where America is more interested in celebrity drama than NASA.  Kids aspire to be professional athletes, and rockstars, but go to college to be lawyers and doctors.  The handy-man is seen as a lovable tramp, a low-life necessity in this world of things that move and go, and breakdown.  It is difficult to find something that is repairable in a store.  A broken lamp is sitting behind me right now because there is no way for me to open it up without damaging it, to try and figure out why it won't turn on.  It is destined for Goodwill.  When something breaks, buy a new one.  I'm guilty of it just as much as the next person.  But it feels wrong, and when I think about it, I don't agree with it.  I wasn't raised this way!  So why am I acting like this?
     I guess my point is that by branding the same idea as a core value carried by those who lived through the Great Depression, I was able to shatter the anti-environmental, anti-"green" connotation that immediately soured the gun-toting Texan.  Hemp-sandaled politics suddenly morphed into the creed of our fathers and grandfathers.  Why did we forget these values?  What happened?

Take a Moment

     The idea for this post started off being centered on bicycles, of course, but as the notion brewed in my mind it sort of grew to encompass, well, everything.

     Have you ever stopped to consider the technology around you?  No, I don't mean computers, cell phones and other high tech gizmos of the modern age.  Those don't count.  I mean the little things that make civilized life possible.  I'm talking about ballpoint pens.  Corrugated cardboard.  Pneumatic tires.  Have you ever wondered where these simple things that we take for granted come from?  Have you ever wondered who came up with them?  Because that is how they came to be:  they were someone's idea.  More than likely, it was a single person's idea.  At some point, someone realized there was a way to solve a problem or make something easier; there was a way to write with ink more easily, a way to make cardboard significantly stronger, a way to take the bump and jostle out of road.  That idea was realized, and granted it was improved and built upon for the decades to come, and likely will continue to be improved in the future, but ultimately that idea came out of seemingly nowhere.

     It's so easy to take these things for granted today.  It seems everything is comprised of hundreds if not thousands of tiny, specific parts, all different ideas that came at different times to ultimately come together into one item.  The bicycle is a great example of that.  Did you think that some day, some guy got a bright idea and hammered together a fully geared, chain driven bicycle with pneumatic rubber tires on laced wheels that stopped with caliper brakes, and that this idea came out of nowhere?  I'll give you a hint, it didn't.  Before pneumatic tires there were solid rubber tires, and before that there were simple wooden wheels, much like those found on a horse-drawn wagon.  Having multiple gears on a bike was an idea that came sometime in the early part of the 20th century, and it was a notion that was met with great resistance at first.  In fact, the very idea of a chain driven bicycle, something that might seem so simple and obvious to us today, was an idea that came about decades after the first velocipede was created.  Before chains, the crank was mounted directly to the front wheel.  The iconic "penny-farthing" was a great example of this, and you might be surprised to learn that it was very difficult to ride.

Left:  Example of a "penny-farthing".  Could you imagine trying to ride one?
Right:  Example of a safety bicycle.  It may seem like common sense,
but this was at one time a huge technological breakthrough.
Source

     Fed up with the difficulty associated with riding the beast, the safety bicycle, the forefather of the modern bicycle, was invented in 1876.  This significantly easier to ride vehicle led directly to the infamous "bicycle boom" of the 1890's, which would foster several technological achievements that we definitely take for granted today, pneumatic tires and road building standards being just a few.  A lot of the technology that helped make the automobile not only possible, but also practical, was already "discovered" thanks to the bicycle.

     In our superficial, consumerist society it's easy to get caught up with what things look like on the outside.  But every once in a while, take a moment to think about what's inside, and what it took to create whatever is powering your high tech cell phone, or low tech ballpoint pen.