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Making new 'antiques'

One of the great things about getting old is, as the old joke says, you’re still on the sunshine side of the grass.

The not-so-great part now includes Medicare Part D and 50th class reunions from grammar school.

Somehow, as we get older, some of us tend to place greater value on history, since individually, we have so much more of it than younger people. And that includes, at least in my case, a greater appreciation for antiques—especially for the craftsmanship that was employed in creating a hand-built piece of furniture or a hand-painted vase, a hand-made quilt, or the artistry displayed in a leaded-glass window.

One of the best experiences since we relocated to Northeastern Wisconsin was to see what a furniture restorer achieved with an old heavily painted mahogany chest found at a garage sale in Illinois, and now a prominent part of our bedroom. Of course, that’s only one side of the ledger, and there are entries on the other side that I’d rather forget. And don’t ask me about the dining room table on which at least one emergency appendectomy has been performed!

Nonetheless, I’m struck by an irony regarding packaging bar codes. As recently as two months ago, the cashier at a local store couldn’t get a bar code on a package to properly scan, so she had to enter the code by hand to get the proper price. Let’s be fair: it doesn’t happen often these days, and usually just a “hand-ironing” of a flexible package helps the scanner to read the code. But those of us who recall the early days of bar codes and scanners remember how often nonscans occurred then.

Well, now we have the Baldino factor. If you follow the news, a young man by that name stands accused of defrauding Target stores in Colorado by covering the bar code on a package for a personal electronics product with one he had made for a far-less-costly product. He was able to purchase a $150 product for $4.49, and another product that retailed for $249.99, using a code for a CD player that cost $24.99.

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