I like vintage items...

I like vintage items. Not only is there a difference in aesthetics, that you can't seem to get the same way with modern items, there is something beautiful in the concept of renewal. The idea that nothing is ever too far gone or past restoration. Appreciation. Appreciation of what that item has gone through. I look at objects and even people, as so much more than the surface level version. That's kind of a rare way to think these days; we are living in a throw-away society, sadly. Instead of fixing what is broken, people find it easier to buy brand new.

I go thrifting and antiquing. I'll see something random. And I'll pick it up in my hands, and feel so many things. Imagining: what happened with it, good and bad. Probably lots of mundane and ordinary stuff too; the beautiful parts of life we tend to gloss over until it's too late and we long to have them back. On our death beds we will grasp at the routine tasks, cling to anything, even the sad times, just to live one moment longer.

I drove past a building the other day. On a busy, main road, with high traffic. The structure was old, it was vintage. It is now sitting next door to a car wash, I think, and it looks like some sort of average business now; an office, I guess. But I can see, by studying the architecture, what it once was. It was built in the late 1940s or early 1950s. You can tell by the lines. There is an overhanging roof with supporting pillars and a walk up window that's no longer in use. This was a drive-in restaurant at one time. It makes me feel things whenever I drive by it. I often see people in business suits going in and out (maybe a rental car company now inhabits the building?), I can envision in my mind's eye what it was in its prime.

I imagine cool old cars, families, greasers causing "ruckus"... oh, what a time. People happily smoking cigarettes, blissfully unaware of the health risks. Boy, do I miss smoking cigarettes. I can almost hear the oldies music; coolest rock and roll tunes with lyrics that, even while not always intentioned to be such, innocently innocuous innuendos ablaze, and hiding in plain sight. Kids seemed happy. People seemed it. Perhaps putting on a good front, or maybe they were happy. My goodness, do I love looking at that old building. I love old things. I appreciate the history of them so very much. What once was, what is to come. We shouldn't let the past die with the generations who grow old and move on to their next adventures. Some things need to be restored and preserved. People too.

No one is too far gone. It's so easy to discard someone. Act like it never happened; like they never happened. You know what's hard? Taking something that's broken, and fixing it. But, just like with my 1964 t-bird... it was well worth all the trouble.

And for now, the Dirty Vegan, your queen of thrift, is signing off. Make something old, shiny and new, today - would ya?