Barrett Rainey's Second Thoughts

I’m at an age when I’m slow to accept change. If something has worked well most of my life, it should continue unabated. The comfort zone should not be disturbed. Even as I remember that old saw “change is the only constant,” when it happens it’s still unsettling.

Two recent discoveries are causing my current discomfort. One is that more and more new cars are being sold without spare tires. Now that may be acceptable to those who live in large urban areas where service stations, tire repair shops and tow trucks are readily available. For those of us used to driving several hundred miles at a stretch through empty Western landscapes, the idea is most certainly unacceptable. Most of Oregon’s Harney and Lake Counties fit that empty description. Idaho’s Owyhee, too.

Car companies claim putting a spare tire in each new model costs about $30. Now if you have an annual production run of 200,000, that fifth wheel and tire will cost about $6 million. I once had a flat in Harney County, so far from civilization, that I would have personally paid the $6 million. But, apparently, CEO bonuses are being threatened so we are being asked to sacrifice. Again.

Car makers argue new generations of tires are made of better rubber, are stronger and less apt to have problems. There are also the new “run flat” tires on some of the more expensive models that will normally get you to the next service station. If that service station fixes flats – which many don’t. And is less than 50 miles away. Which many aren’t.

Their weakest argument is that taking out the weight of a tire and wheel makes the vehicle lighter so, therefore, you get better mileage. They make that claim but the savings are so small they don’t try to put a number on it. I could make the same argument that removing all seats but the drivers would probably increase mileage as well but, again, statistically insignificant when compared with convenience.

The second upheaval in my life recently came with the news that fewer K-12 schools, colleges and universities are publishing the traditional yearbook. Again, cost is the reason given. As one principal said, “We’re firing teachers so, when it comes to teachers versus yearbooks, yearbooks are going to lose.” At least that makes more sense than the effect of no spare tire on gas mileage.

Sales of yearbooks have also fallen off recently because people have less disposable income for such things. Another amazing example of how far down the food chain the effects those crooked Wall Street bastards have been on our lives.

Schools also claim they spend thousands ordering yearbooks each year but many who place the orders don’t pick up their copies for one reason or another. So the schools eat the costs on a lot of them.

At least three companies – YearBook Alive, Lifetouch and TreeRing – are in the Internet yearbook publishing business. They create designs from the material submitted, put them online and, for about $15, they’ll send you a hardcopy or you can download one. The TreeRing people claim sales have soared 600% in two years.

In all honesty, yearbooks have never been terribly important in my life. I’ve got a couple of them stashed out in the garage along with lots of other rarely used stuff. May have taken them out once or twice in more than 50 years but that’s all. Probably just to move ‘em.

Still, it’s more than any one person’s value of such things. There’s the tradition and the seeming permanence of spare tires and yearbooks. And a lot of other common fixtures in our lives: home telephones, push lawnmowers, handwriting, math without a calculator, slide rules, fender skirts, single blade razors, nylons, wooden pencils and, yes, spare tires and yearbooks.

We older folks are often told that change is good. We’re told to be flexible. We’re told it’s all for the better. But I’ve noticed most of the people who tell me such things have only just begun to shave.

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