… in what they make anymore?  I know just where did this come from is what you are all thinking.  No, nothing broke here as I was trying to create a memorable Thanksgiving dinner for my kids and extended family.  No, the artificial tree did not not go to together right after almost ten years.  My guess is I may not want to push this for too many more years, though.

What brought this all about was baking.  I did a lot of baking over the last week – breads and cookies being the favs around my house.  I have been through 3 big (28 ounce) cans of pumpkin puree since last Sunday.  While at the community Thanksgiving service last Tuesday night, a friend asked if I would make him some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  He works in retail so was not going to be Thanksgiving morning mass (neither was I as I was at the Turkey Trot).  I told him I would bring him a dozen on Sunday.

Needless to say, my long run this weekend had me exhausted, not quite sure why, Saturday evening so I figured I had plenty of time Sunday morning to make cookies before heading to church at 11 am.  To top that all off, there were some communication misfires between me and my youngest and I was up most of the night awaiting a call from him as to his whereabouts.

So back to pride in workmanship.  About five years ago, I went out on Thanksgiving day and purchased a five speed, handheld mixer.  My previous mixer, a Waring and a wedding gift, was not broken but the beaters themselves were breaking.  Since this five speed was on sale (I felt like I was trading down as my Waring has 12 speeds), I decided the old mixer itself must be getting ready to break if the beaters were breaking.  What I liked about the original’s beaters is there were two sets – one for normal baking and one for bread doughs.  The newer mixer had only one set of beaters.

About two weeks ago, I went to back something with that now five year old, five speed, handheld mixer.  In the middle of mixing the cookie dough (yes, I could do this all by hand but choose not to), the part that holds the beaters in the mixer popped right out of it.  This is not a normal thing.  I had broken the mixer.  Lucky for me, the beaters fit in my Waring mixer and I had never thrown it out.

So, here I was this morning – running on very little sleep – and thinking how amazing it is that the Waring handheld mixer I have is 26.5 years old and still running like a charm.

Do you think today’s products are inferior to those of earlier days?