By Chad Love

Times are undoubtedly tough right now, but every now and then you stumble across a reminder that no matter how bad you think you might have it, you don't have it nearly as bad as you think you do.

I found one such reminder this weekend as I was going through my old reel collection. Sitting amongst the vintage Pfluegers and Langleys and Ambassadeurs was this battered old Johnson Century. The Century was introduced in 1956 and there were a ton of them produced, so there's nothing inherently unique or collectable about it except that it belonged to my wife's grandfather and it was given to me after he died. He and my wife's grandmother were both fishing fools and I can only imagine how many western Oklahoma farm-pond bass this old reel has caught in the past half-century or so.

But as I was holding it yesterday something caught my eye, a detail I had never noticed before: The front part of the aluminum reel foot had at some point in the past been welded back on the reel. Now my wife's grandfather was a welder by trade, so on one level it's not surprising that he'd fix it rather than simply throw the reel away and buy a new one. As the son of a welder, I can attest that crusty old welders are just that way.

But what I find fascinating, and telling, is when that repair had to have been made. With all due respect to that old Johnson, it's a perfect example of a post-war American manufacturing industry that emphasized efficiency and speed over hand-crafted, high-priced artisanship. It's a good, reliable reel, but it was designed to be replaced, not repaired. And that is the basis of the modern throwaway culture we know today. 

So why would someone take the time and trouble to fix something meant to be replaced? Because like virtually all our parents or grandparents, my wife's grandfather grew up during the Great Depression. And back then there was no throwing something away because there wasn't a damn thing to replace it with. You either fixed what you had or you did without.

It's a sobering thought to realize that the experience of living through the Great Depression was so powerful, so searing that some thirty-odd years later in a time of relative prosperity my wife's grandfather would rather fire up his welder to fix a cheap little spincasting reel than be so wasteful as to throw it away and buy a new one.

I don't know about you, but I think this old reel and what it represents could teach us all a thing or two about what really tough times are like.

Comments (11)

from HogBlog wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

Damn, now I've been hot and cold on this blog for a while (although lately it's been a lot better), but this is the kind of stuff I come to read!

Thanks for a much-needed reminder. We take an awful lot for granted these days.

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from ingebrigtsen wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

Today stuff is made as to be impossible to repair just so that u dont have the option to repair it, but has to throw it away and buy a new one.. Its purposely built so that this cycle of consumption has to be propelled forward, and not only for labour and cost saving considerations..

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from jjas wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

Good column today. I myself have been trying to do a better job of buying only what I need and doing without things I don't.

Jim

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from labrador12 wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

Yeah, I loved those old Johnsons. I've still got the one I gave my late wife. It's mounted on a Herters stiff-butted rod. She caught grayling, lakers, bass, pike, and alot of dinners with that rig. I turned her on to the great anti-reverse spinning reels and braided line before she died. She got to catch some silvers that that Johnson would have exploded on, before she died. I thought they were a fine fish catching tool in the late 60's and early 70's.

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from ranger2 wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

When was the depression? I was born in the early 80's and I grew up poor enough and in rural enough Idaho that we did the same thing with all of our gear, like I mentioned on DEP's fix-it article the other day- I have fixed or built from scratch all kinds of gear. I think it satisfying to repair things an duse them, especially complicated repairs. Besides, I really appreciate the philosophy of living to consume as little as possible

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from Big O wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

The people who survived the "Depression" always found a way to either fix someting or make due with what they had. Wish thing's were still that way today in our "disposable" society.

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from Paul Wilke wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

Did you take the hint, and put it back in service?

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from buckhunter wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

I loved the Johnson Century. Those things could cast a mile and were as smooth as silk. I wish I still had my old one. As for throw away quality? I think they were made a lot better than many more expensive reels today. You got me missing my old reel. I'm going on Ebay to see if I can find one.

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from FloridaHunter1226 wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

We have become a society of disposing things instead of fixing them and it is really sad to see what we have become.

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from Jere Smith wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

Ranger 2 The "Great Depression was Ftom 1929 to about 1940, My Grand Pa talked about is all the time.

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from Peter Campbell wrote 2 years 44 weeks ago

It reminds me of when my 2 hammers came loose at the head. I brought them to my father who tapped a trim nail into the head of one and adjusted the head placement on the other. I asked him how he knew to fix that and he said: " My Dad never liked to replace things and I don't either." Coincidentally, his Dad was born the day the stock market crashed but became a high ranking accountant at the MGM Grand Hotel and later started a family-owned sporting goods store, which he came out of retirement to work at.

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from labrador12 wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

Yeah, I loved those old Johnsons. I've still got the one I gave my late wife. It's mounted on a Herters stiff-butted rod. She caught grayling, lakers, bass, pike, and alot of dinners with that rig. I turned her on to the great anti-reverse spinning reels and braided line before she died. She got to catch some silvers that that Johnson would have exploded on, before she died. I thought they were a fine fish catching tool in the late 60's and early 70's.

+5 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from ingebrigtsen wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

Today stuff is made as to be impossible to repair just so that u dont have the option to repair it, but has to throw it away and buy a new one.. Its purposely built so that this cycle of consumption has to be propelled forward, and not only for labour and cost saving considerations..

+4 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from jjas wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

Good column today. I myself have been trying to do a better job of buying only what I need and doing without things I don't.

Jim

+3 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from HogBlog wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

Damn, now I've been hot and cold on this blog for a while (although lately it's been a lot better), but this is the kind of stuff I come to read!

Thanks for a much-needed reminder. We take an awful lot for granted these days.

+3 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Paul Wilke wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

Did you take the hint, and put it back in service?

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from buckhunter wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

I loved the Johnson Century. Those things could cast a mile and were as smooth as silk. I wish I still had my old one. As for throw away quality? I think they were made a lot better than many more expensive reels today. You got me missing my old reel. I'm going on Ebay to see if I can find one.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from FloridaHunter1226 wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

We have become a society of disposing things instead of fixing them and it is really sad to see what we have become.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Big O wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

The people who survived the "Depression" always found a way to either fix someting or make due with what they had. Wish thing's were still that way today in our "disposable" society.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from ranger2 wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

When was the depression? I was born in the early 80's and I grew up poor enough and in rural enough Idaho that we did the same thing with all of our gear, like I mentioned on DEP's fix-it article the other day- I have fixed or built from scratch all kinds of gear. I think it satisfying to repair things an duse them, especially complicated repairs. Besides, I really appreciate the philosophy of living to consume as little as possible

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Jere Smith wrote 2 years 47 weeks ago

Ranger 2 The "Great Depression was Ftom 1929 to about 1940, My Grand Pa talked about is all the time.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Peter Campbell wrote 2 years 44 weeks ago

It reminds me of when my 2 hammers came loose at the head. I brought them to my father who tapped a trim nail into the head of one and adjusted the head placement on the other. I asked him how he knew to fix that and he said: " My Dad never liked to replace things and I don't either." Coincidentally, his Dad was born the day the stock market crashed but became a high ranking accountant at the MGM Grand Hotel and later started a family-owned sporting goods store, which he came out of retirement to work at.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

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All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.