Brands

   I'm over sixty years old. When I was a teenager, conditions were different; a lot different. Air conditioning was relatively new and expensive. Most homes and businesses did not have air conditioning. I can remember going to the movies and the manager propping open the emergency exit doors to let a breeze in. five hundred people breathing the same air makes for a stuffy environment.
  The concrete 'awnings' on Elk avenue had not been constructed yet. The national Urban Renewal campaign was yet to occur. Some stores had canvas awnings. Some of the awnings had colorful stripes, while others were a muted darker gray or red. Some stores had no awnings. I remember them because I spent a lot of time in town, and on cold Wintery days, with snow, slush and ice on the streets and sidewalks, those awnings created a dry space, a refuge from the wet and sometimes, the cold.
   When I was young, people dressed for the weather. In fact, you needed to know something about clothes to be successful at staying comfortable.
   Today, people go from an environmentally controlled house to an environmentally controlled car or truck, to an environmentally controlled work place, grocery store or factory, and back to an environmentally controlled home.
   Not so in the sixties. Automobile heaters were not as efficient and quick to heat, nor as reliable, as those in use today. They were dependant on the water in the radiator heating up, which could take a lot of time. No anti-freeze then either.
   There was enough snow and ice each year to make waiting for the car to heat up and melt-the-ice-on-the-windshield and warm the inside, a seasonal ritual often the subject of small talk.
   Most synthetic and waterproof fabrics (e.g. Gore-Tex) were not yet invented. You could choose from cotton, wool, silk, linen and leather, with or without fur.
   A waterproof jacket was usually rubber coated cotton canvas or nylon. A substitute could be made from a leather jacket, sometimes treated with a waxy/oily coating. Either could get hot and result in overheating and perspiration.
   A better garment was made differently than a lesser one. More stitches making a stronger seam. Thicker fabric lasting longer. Better dies that made longer lasting permanent colors.
   As I mentioned before, more money did not necessarily mean a better garment. Finding a better garment for a fair price took effort.
   Many popular brands and products achieved their reputation honestly but lost quality over time with a change in management, ownership, or policy. They survive today based solely on their reputation.
   As I said before, acquiring goods can be a lot of work. Sometimes the effort is rewarding, sometimes not. Pay more now, or a little less, more often.
   Life today can be much more comfortable, but still takes a certain astuteness when buying things.
True, a controlled environment makes a choice of clothhing almost moot. If you're never exposed to the environment, you never need to consider the survival value of your decisions.
   What do I like about today's 'stuff' environment? I like the idea of lightweight waterproof products like Gore-Tex. I like the successful execution of such ideas even better, and especially when they're affordable.
   I realized early on the value of mass production, but mass design is also valuable. By mass design, I mean a universal design for a class of product. One of the classic examples is the CD player. Shortly after the introduction of the CD player to American culture, dozens if not hundreds of manufacturers sprang up. The basic CD player design was quickly perfected and mass produced. The differences between units were the bells and whistles for the most part. The CD player was such a step up from its predecesor, the cassette player, market penetration was immediate. The sheer volume of sales made expensive items a matter of self-indulgence rather than achievement of greater functionality.
  An audiophile (connoisseur) grade audio product was available to the masses at an affordable price.
   Another innovation was color television. Movies had been made in color for a couple of decades.
Black and white televisions (B&W TVs) had become popular and common in the fifties.
   LED televisions are an event similar to the CD player. The OLED may be a slight uptick in the market.
   Automobiles have gone from primarily mechanical devices to half mechanical and half electrical/electronic. In the fifties, the only electrical compnents were the lights, generator, wiring and the battery. Headlights, tailights, and dome lights were all that existed. A flasher was electro-mechanical in nature. A vibrator was used for a flasher. The 'vibrator' was a canned electrical circuit including an oscillator and a relay contacts.
   I hope this illuminates the past to some degree.