Boosting Conservation

A story about a 91-year-old woman in Florida who is still cruising around town in her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente caught my eye last week. Rachel Veitch has owned her Comet for 46 years and has put a whopping 559,000 miles on it. She bought the car for $3,300 and over the years has given it a lot of TLC to keep it going. In addition to all that TLC, she had the foresight to get lifetime warranties for the muffler, battery and shocks, so she’s been able to keep her operating costs to a minimum. And after all these years together, she still considers her car “the most gorgeous thing on earth.”

Obviously Rachel has gotten a lot of enjoyment, service and value out of a purchase made 46 years ago. In this fast-paced, throw-away society, wouldn’t it be nice to find something as economical and serviceable as Rachel’s old car? Not only would we save a lot of money over the years, we’d also save a lot of landfill space.

The American way is to replace the old with the new at an ever-increasing rate, most often without a care about what resources are being used or abused. Though it wouldn’t be beneficial to our floundering economy if all of us suddenly decided we were content with a trusty old car like Rachel, it would be refreshing if more of us placed a little more emphasis on valuing and preserving what we do have.

Sharron