Quality, Sentimentality and the Billfold.....

My Dad always said "When you buy, buy the best quality you can afford."  In other words, if you can afford a thirty dollar hammer that will last you ten years, that's better than a ten dollar hammer that will last you three.  So, with that in mind, how long should a good quality billfold last?  If you look at the billfold below, you could say that it's ready to be retired.  And you are right!

On the first day of deer season in 1985, my Dad didn't go hunting with Ralph and I.  He said he didn't really feel like it and when we came in around noon there was a note on the table that Mom had taken him to the hospital with chest pains.  Later that night, he had a massive heart attack which eventually caused his death three weeks later.

In Ralph's growing up years, he had been quite involved in leather-craft, so he had bought a billfold kit from Tandy Leather and was going to make a new billfold for Dad for Christmas.  Well, he went ahead and crafted the billfold and gave it to me for Christmas that year.  I have carried the billfold ever since and just recently, it has literally "came apart at the seams."  I really hated to give it up because of it's sentimental value...But...after twenty-nine years....I think it's time for a new one!

Ralph made the design of a Transit on one side

And my name with a North Arrow on the other side.  The "R" and the North Arrow are pretty well worn off!

This is where it was coming apart at the seams

I decided to try my hand at making myself a new billfold.  I bought a kit from Tandy Leather in the same design as the old one.  I followed the instructions (almost) exactly and it turned out pretty good!  Not tooled like Ralph's, and not as smoothly stitched but good enough to carry all my money around!

 

If this one lasts twenty-nine years, that will put me at eighty years old, senile, toothless, in the nursing home and with no need for a billfold!