[Milsurplus] Big/Heavy is Over

[David Stinson]

From: Jim Whartenby
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Big/Heavy is Over

 

BTW, I've met and talked with you at a Texas hamfest when you were displaying your Mil-Radios.  Your daughters were with you and quite young at the time.  There was a lot to see at the 'fest and you seemed to have your hands full at the time, so I moved on.

Jim

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I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk with you, Jim.  
Yes; that was HamCom in Plano, IIRC 2011.  Amber and Amanda were with me.  They had us tucked-away in a side room, an “expansion” of the floor flea market.  That really cut-into traffic, but that year we did have some significant interest.  Maybe  the young girls helped, HI.   Tried three times more after that , and each time interest declined until it was nothing by 2015 or 16- not worth all the effort.    The decline in interest matches the decline in the population of 1950s-1960s-1970s hams.   There aren’t many of us left who grew up with a WWII Vet father,  who wouldn’t talk to us about the horrors he’d seen, so we watched “12 O’Clock High” and “Combat” and “Rat Patrol,” and played with other boys who were trying their best to be like what they imagined their fathers must have been.

 

I wrote something several years ago about two old men discussing how to get the young people involved in their craft before it became extinct with them.  They had lots of ideas.  The “reveal” was that these two oldsters were having this discussion 5,000 years ago, and they were discussing the fine art and craft of building and maintaining Chinese war chariots.   In all the world, there may yet be one or two people who both know anything about them and have the skill to maintain them.  The point is, this is the nature of all things human- all things have their “day in the sun,” and all things pass away.   In a hundred years, there will be one or two who care anything about our craft and actively work to preserve what little of it is left.  This is normal and unavoidable.   Enjoy the time that remains.  Get that soldering iron hot and actually finish a project- you’ll be very happy you did.   It’s a joy to bring a 70-year-old relic back to life with your own hands.

 

There is one compensation:  For a person of faith, nothing is ever lost.  Everything is remembered.

I pity those without faith; for them, the universe begins in oblivion, ends in oblivion and the tiny little blip between is just a pile of meaningless, painful horse-crap.

 

73 OM DE Dave AB5S

 

 

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