Good Bye Mr. Roebuck!

We needed some new tools for the ranch. We had a complete set 10 years ago, but for some reason they have developed legs and walked off. Trying to do work on the 20 hp brush mower required some ½ inch and 9/16 sockets. The missing sockets have eloped to Mexico City. I hope they will be happy there.

So it’s either WalMart or Sears.

No contest, Sears has Craftsman Tools, with a life time warrantee. I really don’t need a lifetime warrantee since I have exhausted 80 % of my life, and I doubt that I will be fixing much other than the wheels of my chair in 5 or 10 years……

Sears…Roebuck .my first memories were that of traversing the store seeing beach balls floating 3 or 4 feet above Kenmore Vacuum Cleaners immediately adjacent to the stand with the smell of the roasted peanuts or popcorn on the first floor.

My parents would let me go to the camera department or to the TV area.

As a little kid I loved the TV department, where the tape recorders, radios and phonographs were located. My brother would be left off at the sports department where J.C. Higgins was the brand of fishing reels and creels.

So it’s off to Sears in Morelia. Yes there are Sears in Mexico.

That’s the Big Box that still has refrigerators and clothes, cosmetics and screwdrivers. The Sears in Morelia has just undergone an expansion. It use to be just 2 floors with stuff now it includes a parking garage and 3 levels. Somebody must be buying a lot of cosmetics.

The Sears in Morelia has no beach balls, popcorn, nuts or JC Higgins. It's now Eureka Vacuums, and down the isle are Nike sports shoes, that’s what has become of the sporting department, OK there are a couple of soccer balls, weight lifting accessories and footballs. No fishing reels or creels.

The hardware department still has Craftsman and the 50 piece set that I remember for around $ 40 bucks in the 50’s is now $ 149.00

It seems that you don’t get very much for your money like you use to, maybe because I have been around too long, kids now a days have no perception of what value things use to be.

But at least now the tool set includes a cheap plastic tool box. The metal one is $69.00, without anything…….