A Prudent Replacement...

[Thipu1]

...or is it?

The following scenario is presented for your consideration.

There are possessions you dearly love.  They may be garments or kitchen implements.  None of them have any intrinsic value and you know that they are nearing the end of their useful lives.  As any prudent person would, you buy replacements for the decrepit things and still prefer to use the old stuff.

I freely admit that I've done this.  My MIL offered me an old red wool coat that didn't fit her any more.  It fit me perfectly.  I wore it for years and loved it.  Mr. Thipu finally said that I shouldn't wear that coat while standing on a street corner with a cup of take-out coffee.  He was afraid that passers by might drop money into my coffee cup while I waited for the bus.

He was right, of course.  The coat was getting very thread-bare but it was so comfortable I didn't want to give it up.  He bought me a replacement that's very nice but, for neighborhood errands in bad weather, I still reach for that old coat.

There's also a skillet that has seen better days and a kitchen knife that's so old it's almost a sliver.  We have new pans and new knives but these remnants are important to me in some way.  Do other people here find themselves doing the same thing?
           
 

 

[zoidberg]

I know exactly what you mean. I have a small red cooking pot that was given to me by my mother the day I moved out. She has had it since the day she moved out of my grandmothers house and my grandmother had had it a while. It was actually given to her at a refugee camp in Austria after she had to flee from Hungaria in the fifties. As long as I've had it one handle is missing and there has never been a lid.

It's scratched and dented and not pretty to look at. But it's the perfect size for making spaghetti sauce for two people and I could never ever bring myself to throw it out. The mother of my boyfriend gave me a sparkling new one but it's just not the same and I could swear the spaghetti sauce cooked in it doesn't taste the same. 

[phred246]

I have an old, grey, knitted cap that I wear in the winter. I like it because it keeps my head warm, and easily fits into my coat pocket. My wife hates it, saying that it makes me look like a homeless bum (of course the fact that I don't shave every day doesn't help my defense).

[IndianInlaw]

One of my long ago best friends was the daughter of an Exxon executive (sorry), who was also a very distinguished professor at an East Coast university.   He had this sweater that was FROM HUNGER, but he wore it around the house.  I saw it and it was quite the rag.

As for myself, I wore the same winter boots for 20 years.

And I had a bathrobe that was on a par with the Shroud of Turin.

[Bijou]

...or is it?

The following scenario is presented for your consideration.

There are possessions you dearly love.  They may be garments or kitchen implements.  None of them have any intrinsic value and you know that they are nearing the end of their useful lives.  As any prudent person would, you buy replacements for the decrepit things and still prefer to use the old stuff.

I freely admit that I've done this.  My MIL offered me an old red wool coat that didn't fit her any more.  It fit me perfectly.  I wore it for years and loved it.  Mr. Thipu finally said that I shouldn't wear that coat while standing on a street corner with a cup of take-out coffee.  He was afraid that passers by might drop money into my coffee cup while I waited for the bus.

He was right, of course.  The coat was getting very thread-bare but it was so comfortable I didn't want to give it up.  He bought me a replacement that's very nice but, for neighborhood errands in bad weather, I still reach for that old coat.

There's also a skillet that has seen better days and a kitchen knife that's so old it's almost a sliver.  We have new pans and new knives but these remnants are important to me in some way.  Do other people here find themselves doing the same thing?
           
 

 

Yes.  I got a few great shirts some years ago.  They were comfortable, big, baggy, full cotton and had a V neck, which I loved.  They've been washed until they're lifeless and full of holes (big ones), but I love them.  I wear other ones when I leave the house, but wear these at home and to bed.  They are  my nighgowns (maybe gown is too elegant a term).  Sometimes someone will come over and I've just been lazing around in one of my favorite shirts, and I have to say, "Brrr, it's cold in here!" and pretend to be freezing, and go put on a sweatshirt so they can't see my tummy peeking through the hole in the front.   

[FoxPaws]

I try to clean out my closets every year and I'm always tossing stuff that's newer and in better shape than my "favorites". One pet t-shirt finally got tossed when I felt a breeze, looked down, and realized it was no longer "street legal" .

I also stopped (or at least I'm trying to ) buying kitchen gadgets because I realized no matter how many slicers, dicers, steamers, stirrers, and gourmet widgets I've got, I still reach for the same old pans and paring knife 99% of the time.

[Morty'sCleaningLady]

I'm pretty practical and replace things as necessary.  My Grandparents, when alive, however, were Depression Era survivors who really, really, really used things through.  My Grandfather loved V neck cotten t-shirts (just the Hanes ones that men wear under dress shirts).  If you bought him new ones for Christmas, he would horde them away and continue to wear the old ones that the family had nicknamed the 'lacy ones' because of all of the holes.  After he passed away, my Grandmother took to wearing his old zip up sweatshirt as a coat.  She insisted it was toasty warm, but she always froze in that thing.  When she passed away, we gave three brand new, tags-still-on coats to Saint Vincent De Paul.