The cost of reliving the past
It is easy enough to take for granted particularly every-day things. After all, anything common or ordinary tends to be forgotten quickly. We normally value only things that are important to us, or things that we believe may be exchanged for goods or services in the future. At times, the value can also be just “sentimental.”
Appreciation of “value” is not necessarily something that can be passed on. My son, for instance, is not likely to keep my books on a wide variety of subjects, including geography, music, and history. That is, unless he actually derives some form of value or enjoyment from them now, and opts to keep them in the future.
If not, I would encourage him to donate them to a library later on, rather than just throwing them out. Other people may still find them useful, or enjoyable. I also hope he realizes that every time we throw away a piece of popular literature, or popular art, simply because we consider them common or burdensome or junk, then we also lose a little of our own history and culture.
A couple of years ago, I chanced upon a book at a sale. It was published in 1987, about 30 years ago, but was still in good condition. It was nothing important, not valuable at all. But, it compiled reprints or copies of 18 Superman comic books that were published from 1940 to 1986 — a 50th anniversary commemoration of the popular comic art.
In its pages, one sees the transition not just of comic art but also of storyline and language, which somewhat reflects or parallels history and culture of the time. As a medium, comic art can reflect the period it was published in, and can thus give a version of history as presented to a child. And, what I find heartening is that my young son has actually taken a liking to the book.
While technology has advanced so much in the last 40 years, I personally don’t believe this was all for the better. I still prefer books, for instance, and have never bought an e-book. In fact, some of these old technologies or designs appear to be enjoying a resurgence of sorts, for one reason or the other. A lot of “retro” has been going on, of late, and at a higher price tag.
An example is Japanese watch brand Seiko, which has been releasing ’70s-style mechanical and digital watches in limited edition since 2015. These include reissuing 1980s-era digital watches designed by Italian automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, who was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999, and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.
Over 30 years ago, Giugiaro designed a number of Seiko motoring watches, including a digital watch that was also used by the main protagonist in the then futuristic movie Aliens in 1986. That Aliens watch, as a recent reissue, sells for about $350 retail. When it first came out, the watch was probably priced below $100 — as it was nothing more than an ordinary, common, every day digital watch made in Japan.
To date, an original Aliens watch from 1983, when it first came out, and in mint condition, sells at e-Bay for about $2500. That’s right, had you kept that ordinary every day digital watch from when you were probably a teenager, then you can expect to make a good deal of money from it now. But, like most people, you probably took that ordinary thing for granted and chucked it when it croaked.
I own some watches — both mechanical and quartz — that date back 25-30 years. Even with little maintenance over the years, they still work well to date. Despite their age, their “technologies” are still in use. And, just in the middle of last year, I sought repairs on a manual-wind watch that was about 50 years old. It had been junked for about 35 years, but after a couple of months in the repair shop and sourcing of used parts, it was again ticking like new.
I have also been entrusted with a number of long-playing records that have been originally pressed in the early 1960s. Some are about 55 years old, and were not exactly kept in the best way possible. They were neglected and relegated to storage for maybe about 25 years. But, with some cleaning, these LPs have been recently resurrected and still sound very good even on a not-so-expensive audio set. Despite 55 years passing, these “old school” stuff still work well.
And to my recent surprise, a newly pressed LP can now cost anywhere from P2,000 for a single disc to about P4,500 for a double album. Vintage LPs retail in thrift shops from about P500 to P1,500. About 40 years ago, LPs cost less than P100. And, a good, brand-new turntable now runs from about P8,000 to hundreds of thousands of pesos, depending on the brand. I bought one of mine from a thrift shop many years back for about $10.
Records or LPs are just one of the few examples of things that have made a successful comeback in the last decade. They were lost for a while, and had become practically worthless and unwanted from the 1980s onwards, and we all moved on to newer things from there.
But now they are back, and along with them came the “high cost” of our reliving our past.
I still use a fountain pen to date, first bought about 20 years ago. I have watches that are 25-30 years old. I have a bartending book that dates back to 1974, and also own a car that’s more than 40 years old. The oldest movie in my hard drive dates back to 1927. I have a VHS tape about professional basketball that is at least 30 years old, and I listen to 50-year-old LPs when I have the time. While these are all old junk for many, I consider them my personal treasures.
And this is my point: “Old” technology still works, and in some instances, work better and last longer than “new.”
Apparently, we had a lot of good stuff from the past that we took for granted, and maybe as we move on, we should learn to be more appreciative of what we may now consider just ordinary, every-day things.
A lot of good things have come and gone, and many of them were actually worth keeping. If only we realized this at the time.
Marvin A. Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council.
