Garda and her teeth

I was brushing my teeth before bed the other night and had a revelation.

Those who knew my mother, Garda, knew that she took good care of her teeth. It was almost an obsession with her. She would floss every day and the brushing took five minutes. She was very thorough.

And she always worked a toothpick after meals.

Even in those last few days of her life when it was a chore just to walk a few steps to the bathroom, she enjoyed brushing her teeth and the way her mouth felt afterwards.

The revelation I had the other day was the “why” of this life-long habit.

I thought perhaps it was because Dad had his top teeth pulled in his early 40s and had uppers. That probably wasn’t too fun or romantic. Surely it was expensive.

But that wasn’t it.

Garda’s mother died when she was only ten years old. It was a vivid but painful memory for Garda and her sisters to become orphans at such a young age. (Grandpa died in 1925.)

It was never clear to the girls what killed Grandmother Malinda, but it was a long and painful illness for a woman of 43. Speculation is that it was perhaps undiagnosed diabetes. She had her gallbladder removed. The immediate cause of death is believed to have been blood clots on the brain. Who knows? Medical science in Southern Utah in 1933 was rather primitive.

Anyway, back to Garda and dental hygiene.

A few months before Malinda passed away she had all of her teeth removed because it was believed they were causing an infection throughout her body.

Just imagine the impact that had on a 10-year-old girl. You come home from school to see your already-ill mother made worse by having all her teeth extracted under little or no anesthetic. And she would never recover. She died in December of 1933.

Call me crazy, but I think Garda saw bad teeth as a sign of death. She didn’t want to go through all that pain (or make her family endure it) so she kept her teeth clean and healthy.

Name brand merchandise

I'm a bit sore about brand names and support.

Several years ago I bought a new faucet for the tub. I paid more and got a "brand name" faucet because I wanted to be able to walk into a store and buy parts for it.

So, I installed an American Standard tub faucet. It has serve us well until this week when the seals began to leak. And off I went with the old cartridge in search of a new one, or some new seals for mine.

Home Depot - Didn't have it.
Menards - Didn't have it.
Ace Hardware (2 different stores) - Didn't have it.
Han's Plumbing Supply (a guy who had been in business since 1954) - Didn't have it, but could order it for me.

So, Amazon had it for $12 plus shipping and it will be here by Tuesday. Meanwhile, it is leaking so I shut the water off at night and when we're gone.

Why did I buy a name brand? I would have been better off to buy the bargain brand and just replace the whole thing every three years.

I'm at the store today and I notice an electric blanket with the Sunbeam logo and some tag line like, "Your trusted brand for 100 years."

Except Sunbeam has been gone for 20 years. It has been bought and sold a few times. There are no Sunbeam engineers or manufacturing plants. It's just a name; a familiar logo.

If you read the fine print on the bottom of the box, it says the company is Jarden Corporation and the blanket is made in China. I pity the poor suckers who buy the hype and believe they are buying an American product.

We bought a TV. It says Westinghouse on it. You think about Westinghouse and you think about those giant generators inside Hoover Dam. Westinghouse and apple pie.

Here's what the website for Westinghouse Digital says about the company:
"About Us
Who We Are
Westinghouse Digital is one of the leading LCD TV Manufacturers in the U.S. We offer a complete line of innovative LED and CCFL backlit LCD displays for the U.S. consumer market. Westinghouse Digital’s award-winning HDTV line includes a complete family of 720p and 1080p eco-friendly LED and LCD TVs. Westinghouse Digital has made a strong commitment to producing eco-friendly, energy-saving displays with their greenvue, greenvue + and LED product lines which meet Energy Star and California Energy Commission (CEC) Tier 1 & 2 standards.

Westinghouse Digital is headquartered in Orange, California."

Wow! Sounds American to me. The box says "Made in China," as does the data plate on the TV itself.

It would be strange if it weren't made in China, since even RCA is made there. Even the Japanese brands aren't made in Japan.

At the hardware store I started looking at power tools. Sure, the off brands are made in China, but so are Skil, Black and Decker, a most of the "name brands." B&D adds a little statement that their tools are made in a Black and Decker supervised plant in China.

Bosch makes some of their high end tools in Switzerland.

What's my point?

1) You can't tell country of origin by the logo

2) Read the fine print on the carton to find out where it is made. They make an effort to conceal it by putting their US address first and at the end of the paragraph finally fess up where they made it.

3) Chances are most of what you buy was made in China or another Asian country.

4) Save your manual if you ever expect to find parts.