Living in the Material World—Some Product Endorsements
As I rode my bicycle back from a “farmer’s scramble” breakfast at Bette’s Oceanview Diner in West Berkeley this morning, I thought about which purchases—over the years—have stood me in best stead.
What first came to mind, of course, was that amazing instrument transporting me without much effort over the residential avenues of Berkeley. I bought my UNIVEGA bike in Madison WI around 1984. Besides breezing down Williamson-Marquette neighborhood streets at all hours of the nights and days with Peter, and camping trips west along the rolling, wooded Military Ridge Trail (a former railroad grade), I rode it regularly around Lake Monona to my work at WPS Insurance (where management personnel were instructed to
drive the 50 yards between corporate buildings). Though I always thought the guys at Williamson Bike Works saddled me with a frame a bit small for my medium build, it has served me well for 19 years. My bike is currently my primary means of transportation.
Older than my bicycle is my NORTH FACE tent, which I purchased in Chicago with ⅔ of my $600 VISTA stipend earned after my year working with the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. This green and tan ripstop nylon tent stretched over three bent flexible aluminum poles (each composed of five or six unfolded, interlocking, shock-corded segments) was one of the first “geodesic” styles made. I pitched it in Wisconsin’s Peninsula SP fronting Lake Michigan’s Green Bay. It sheltered Peter and me in the Sierra Nevada’s Emigrant Wilderness, Lassen Volcanic and Yosemite NPs. Somewhat worse for a great deal of wear (How many times did I pitch/strike it along the South Fork Yuba River?), the manufacturer honored their amazing lifetime warranty and replaced the door zipper free of charge. Since 1978.
But I did not have my tent when my college friend Mark H and I tackled Vermont’s Long Trail, starting in Williamstown MA. Mark provided the tent but I hoisted a KELTY pack (circa 1969), which now draws some attention when I load it for the occasional short backpack.
Older still was the warped, wood-framed racket of my mom or dad’s that I used when Tina and I began to play tennis almost daily during my first unemployed year. After six months or so I replaced it with a freshly strung PRINCE, the brand I’d learned on in high school. I guess the old racket dated to 1945 or so. And my BAUER rollerblades are a good-sight superior to the generic brand I’d learned on (though I’m much indebted to Mauricio for getting me on my feet): not everything older is better.
What thou lovest well… the material things in my case are mostly durable, fairly low-tech devices that have provided joy over many years by expanding through effort this body’s mobility and scope, and producing with exhilaration an ineffable sense of freedom.
posted by Paul at 10:14 AM
