Antiques?

The older I get, the more I realize that many of those things people are trying to sell as antiques are really things that I remember from when I was younger. A couple of months ago, we spent some time walking through an antique shop in Walla Walla, Washington. It slowly dawned on us that many of the objects we were looking at were things that we played with when we were little. There was a pedal car, a doll stroller and even a set of play dishes that looked just like ones I remembered playing with. They were not only old, but they were asking ridiculous prices for them. It made me feel really, really old.
However, being old is not necessarily a bad thing. The Bible says, "Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?" (Job 12:12) Of course, now the problem is convincing others that I have wisdom and understanding!

New from Old

Twenty-three years old is young, if you are a human. However, if you are a car, it's quite old and bordering on antique. In Idaho, a car that reaches 30 years of age is considered to be a classic and qualifies for classic license plates at a reduced rate from regular license plates.

Our 1988 Toyota Camry station wagon is still running with over 250,000 miles accrued over the past 23 years. It has witnessed the driving abilities of teenaged girls, made multiple trips across the United States, and safely transported our girls to0-and-from high school twenty-five miles away for several years. It takes a licking and keeps on ticking, and it isn't a Timex!

The hood was beginning to show signs of fading and the paint was deteriorating over the past few years. My darling husband bought automotive paint that was color-matched to the car and gave the hood a fresh new look last year. The rest of the car still looks great.

The driver's seat bottom had become thread-bare over the years, and this past weekend, the front seats were given a new look. I had been trying to come up with an inexpensive way to renew the front seats without purchasing hideous seat covers that either didn't match the car color or had ridiculous-looking images on them. Last weekend, I had a brilliant idea: why not purchase bathroom towels and make carseat covers out of them?

I went to JCPenney (my favorite store) and bought four bath-size towels for less than $20. I only had to use three of them as it only took 1-1/2 towels for each seat back/bottom. Two hours later, I had great looking seat covers in a color that matches the car perfectly.