[TR] gifts of Triumph or anything else

[Fisher, Ed]

I've read many articles regarding the next generations and their debt after leaving college, wanting to retire earlier, disdain for sitting in traffic, leaving smaller footprints on the planet with tiny houses and such, not having heirlooms or anything of such to drag around as they move, search for work, transition through different parts of their lives.  While living in a tiny house does not appeal to me I can see the benefits of them.  Less pollution, less mortgage, less land required, some even being mobile.  While I enjoy driving, mostly because I learned it on open roads in the 1960's, it doesn't have the same romance when sitting in traffic here in Dallas where one has to drive quite a ways to get to open roads.  While I appreciate the few antiques that I've gathered over the years they do take a lot of space, and I will have to find something to do with them before I pass away.  In that respect they are a small burden I guess.

According to business magazines, the resale shops, consignment shops, antique stores and such are not doing well because there is a generation that does not want all of that stuff.  It makes sense really, as they grew up with everyday things that were cheap, semi-disposable, and no love lost when discarded.  I grew up poor revering and respecting the things that were hard-fought and gathered by immigrant grandparents.  A broken dish was a big deal as there weren't ready replacements.  I'm ever so grateful to have been given the gift of early poverty.  That said, our cars polluted the air, our factories fouled the rivers (where I grew up the Cuyahoga actually caught on fire), and our wastes have been piling up on this planet with our excesses.  No shaming, no blaming, no political content, just a viewpoint, and one shared by a younger generation that wants to do things differently.  Good for them I say, and when it all comes down to it my stuff is just 'stuff'.  My son grew up earning his own nickels and dimes, learning how to manage his own money, and how to pay for and repair (even paint) his own ride.  We shared those moments and as such they were important to at least me, although he did tell me as an adult that now he understood why I held firm on those many fronts.  That was all I could ever hope for when he thought me a hard-ass through his teenage years.  Now he lives in a high-rise apartment in Miami with his wonderful wife and has explained why he won't be buying a house in that locale.  I get it.  There is a 1965 Mustang that I restored years ago and he knows it is awaiting him when he does buy a house, if ever.  If not, we can agree to give it to a charity and perhaps it can do some good that way.  He's a giving kid.

We aren't missing anything wondering where our stuff will go.  It doesn't have the same 'meaningfulness' to them as it did to us.  I've got a half-dozen other cars that will need to go (did I mention my personal excesses?) and I hope to gift them to good causes that can use the cash, or, to teach some youngsters the art of repair as I did out of my garage.  I won't need them in time, my son won't want them, understandably so, and therefore since I don't want to be buried in them, or buried period, they can go to good home(s)/organizations.  I've had my fun with them, and have been blessed to own them, and have memorable times with all of it, and so it goes.  Oh, and in case you are thinking that any of this has or will be easy on me I would tell of the times that my wife has finally refused to hang up a pair of my drawers on the clothesline because of the rips/tears.  Sometimes I will go out and rescue them for a few more rounds, other times I will tell her I am going to throw them in the trash and I'll ask if she wants to say a few words over the ceremony.  She rolls her eyes, I chuckle, but it is only partly in jest.  Growing up with nothing will do that to ya.

Ed

Dallas, Tx
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