Stuff that works

[rmwarren]

There's a classic Guy Clark song by that name:

Stuff that works,
Stuff that holds up
The kinda stuff you don't hang on the wall...

Today I was setting up the egg to smoke a couple bottom round roasts I got on sale. Grabbed my old Zippo and it had no spark, the flint needed replacing. I use it nearly daily from spring thru fall, not so much this time of year. I don't remember the last time it need a flint, just a squirt of fluid every 10 days or so. I've probably had this lighter for nearly 30 years, plain old stainless model.

Got me thinking about why I first bought it. My maternal grandfather, back when I was 6-8 years old, used the same lighter. He would ask me to play checkers, then fill his pipe with 'backy, good old Prince William in a can, & light it with the unmistakable click... snick... of a Zippo.

Grandad is long deceased. The smell and sound of that lighter reminds me of him and my early childhood, it is such a strong connection.

And it is a classic example of stuff that works.

RMW

 

[andvari]

My HP 15C calculator. Bought it in 1984. Still works fine. Needs new batteries every 5 years or so.

 

[nclemmons]

Good story, Richard.  I think Zippo lighters are guaranteed for life.

BTW, it was Prince Albert tobacco in the can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_(tobacco)

 

[rmwarren]

Good story, Richard.  I think Zippo lighters are guaranteed for life.

BTW, it was Prince Albert tobacco in the can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_(tobacco)

Kid calling the drug store "Do you have Prince Albert in a Can?". Response "Yes". Kid "Well you should let him out!".

Duh  [doh], Can't believe I wiffed on that one (thanks for the correction), especially in light of my other Grandfather story.

My paternal grandfather was a prospector in central Nevada beginning in the 1930's. Not a miner, a prospector. Grandpa rattled around the desert, dug holes and staked claims, in a pickup rather than on a burro. Grandpa dug some monumental holes, I have been in long tunnels and peered down into deep shafts that he carved out and I could not imagine doing it myself.

When you staked a claim the process was to plant a 3-4' post in the dirt, fill out a claim form and attach it. The same claim was also filed @ the county recorder. Each year you had to do XX$ in "assessment" work to maintain the claim, it was for minerals only as all this happened on BLM (government) land. I think the assessment amount was $1,000, which may have entailed moving dirt from one area to another, but I am fuzzy on this. Anyway, when you maintained a claim you also had squatters rights on the surface.

In any case, there was a mining camp outside Belmont NV, around 6-8,000' in elevation, where Grandpa staked claims for gold, antimony and other minerals. There were a couple old pine-board cabins that he, Grandma, my dad and his brother lived in during the summer while Grandpa worked the claims. This was in a place called Antone Canyon, with a meadow and stream running thru it. In addition to the claims and cabins Grandpa had built a crushing mill and retort for separating the gold from ore he dug up. My dad was raised as a kid out there in the 1930's/40's, & later up into his 40's he helped Grandpa work the claims.

While Grandpa was still alive my dad sometimes took us out there (1970's) to stay overnight, we panned gold in the creek, explored old mine sites and generally banged around the hills. My earliest memory is sitting it the cab of a jeep pickup while dad finished doing something i one mine tunnel before we left, the heat was on and there was snow falling, I think I was around 4 years old. Anyway, Grandpa died (@ 93) when I was around 10-11, and we stopped going up there.

In my early 20's I went back there with a friend. I remember driving up the side canyon in August with the windows open, smelling the sage and being flooded with subliminal memories. There is an old stage coach station at the intersection of Meadow Canyon and Antone, where the dirt road crosses the creek, the corrals are still standing due to the dryness of the desert. 

When we go up to the camp we set up our campsite, which was this whacky 4X4 camp trailer, in the meadow near the surviving cabin (Granny burned the other one down with some embers from the cook stove). My buddy in the lounge chair took a nap, and I went exploring. As you can see from the photos (they are clipped from a collage I did for this friend on his 40th) there is a lot of topo around here, hills and gullies to climb around.

[attachthumb=1]

[attachthumb=2]

While he was lounging, I headed up one hill, aiming for nowhere in particular, just wanting to be alone in this piece of desert and soak it all in. There are deer trails so I probably followed one of them, until I came upon an old claim stake under a pinion pine. Nailed to the stake was a Prince Albert tobacco can. Inside the can was a perfectly preserved (this desert is very dry) claim form, in Grandpa's hand writing, from around 20 years earlier.

I probably recognized the handwriting from birthday cards, as he was very old (born in 1894) when I was young, and I really did not know him to speak of. I did feel a real connection to that patch of desert, and I still do. I sat on the ground with that claim in my hand and just immersed myself in the moment, remembering the time there with my dad showing me how to crush ore, pan gold & recovering some of the mercury from the old retort. After a while I put the claim form back in the can and moved along.

I wonder to this day if it is still there.

RMW 

 

[rmwarren]

My HP 15C calculator. Bought it in 1984. Still works fine. Needs new batteries every 5 years or so.

Yep, I use the 12C with RPN, and struggle to use any other calculator with my thumbs...

RMW

 

[rljatl]

Great story Richard.

 

[Harvey]

I’m definitely not into gun culture, but...
I have a Browning 0.22 semi-auto I bought for my eighteenth birthday. It’s a break apart, the barrel separates from the action and stock with a quarter turn. It has a 14 shot tubular magazine in the butt (no pointing it at your head when reloading). Pretty nice features, but the main reason I bought it was the slide lever and ejection port is on the bottom, perfect for a left hander like me.  John Browning put it into production in 1914 (the wikipedia has a photo of  him holding one) & you can still buy a new one today. I’ll be turning sixty this year.

 

[wow]

My Kubota tractor.

Over 20 years old and the first major repair I ever did on it was to replace the clutch this summer after 20 years of bucket and snow work, i.e. working the clutch HARD.

One of the best investments I ever made in a piece of equipment.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I had a Kopra Deluxe bicycle for 25 years. I used it very much, thousands of kilometers per year. It kept on going until it finally cracked, frame broke and I had to retire it. That was a sad day.

In my mothers house, there's a gas stove by Etna my parents bought in 1961. Still used for cooking on it daily.

Most remarkable is the Valliant central heater. These are rated to last 8 to 10 years. The heater is from 1984, 30 years old now and is still working. I had to replace the pump and a valve once, but it's still good. 

 

[Sparktrician]

I still have several Zippo lighters with the logos of the ships I served on, and despite the fact that I quit smoking 44 years ago, they still work flawlessly.  My Smith & Wesson Model 19 Combat Magnum was purchased in 1968 right after I returned from the Southeast Asia War Games, and despite the fact that it has has several thousand rounds through it, it looks like new and has never failed on me.  I still have and use regularly a Herbrand (long out of business) 1/2" drive ratchet with an 18" handle that I bought in the early '60s.  Funny thing about that ratchet - I was cleaning it in the mid-'70s and decided to take it apart to clean the ratcheting parts.  Well, there's a little spring behind the ball detent that shot out and went for a very long trip somewhere.  I couldn't find that spring no matter where I looked, even doing the "crawl on the floor with a flashlight and a magnet" thing.  I put the remaining parts into a zip-lock bag and put the handle and parts back into the roll-around cabinet.  I tried to call Herbrand for a replacement spring, but by then, they'd closed up shop forever.  In '78 I moved, then moved again in '87.  I was cleaning the roll-around's drawers one evening in the late '80s and came across a very small spring in one of the drawers, and knew immediately where it belonged.  Out came the handle and bag of parts to be fully assembled once more.  It still works beautifully today, despite the spring's long vacation.