economy vs not

my parents were both raised during the great depression, and my father especially still has what amounts to a giant case of post traumatic stress disorder from the experience. for example, despite--trust me--greater means than he would ever be able to spend over the course of the rest of his lifetime, and until infirmity finally broke him of the practice, he would beg rides to the acton commuter rail (his closest station) so he could take a train to north station, a green line trolley to government center, a blue line train to airport station, and a masssport bus to his terminal, all while schlepping his entire collection of vacation luggage, rather than spring for a hired car to begin and end his trip. (don't bother to suggest bumming rides to and from the airport from family or friends instead--if you think any one of my relatives could ever bring themselves to be such a burden on anyone you haven't been reading the stories). anyway, this is the man who once bought me a vinyl baseball glove (they're cheaper!) with which to play little league baseball, and, no, i never did dare to show up for tryouts that year, to which we can credit my life of playing soccer as much as anything else, and you know the very first thing i bought for myself with the very first cash from my very first job shoveling driveways was a brand new rawlings real-leather outfielders mitt.

but this, of course, isn't about that. well, maybe a little. see, the one thing my father's miserliness taught me extremely early on is that there's a vast difference between the cheapest option and the most economical. the first step in any value-related decision is therefore best to be an assessment of what you're really hoping to achieve, and judging the success of your economy on the quality its achievement. in the case of vacation airport transportation, one might keep in mind the objective of a vacation, which is to relax. nothing relaxing about the mbta. and in the case of young child peer group activities, one might suggest anything other than a vinyl baseball glove for what i should hope would be obvious reasons, but lets not digress.

so it is that i'm put in mind of all such while opening my morning refrigerator and taking a long, sweet, cold swig of shaw farms all natural organic whole milk from its classic class quart bottle and feeling the sublime grace of providence for the privilege. (yes, i live alone--tell your mother to relax, and that it's my personal bottle, so i drink from it as i please). see, the bottle is now approaching a week old, and quite a bit toward empty, and it still tastes as fresh as you dream your morning taste of milk could be, and that's a beautiful thing. i've many times been given the sour grapes lament over the cost of each bottle ($1.55) from people not clued into the true economy of that number, but nowhere in their sigh of regret is ever mentioned the number of times such a sad-sack might have caught that slight whiff of "not quite" when pouring from their hoods' or market basket's or whoever have you's plastic jug.

i buy milk to be healthy and delicious, not growth-hormone laced and not. that $1.55 is much more of a bargain than my father or anyone on his side of the family can quite comprehend. (the other side, though no less old yankee skinflint than their in-laws, is comprised of a sufficient number of dairy farmers who would never make mistake over the essence of a good glass of milk, so i guess it's left to you whether or not i've triumphed over my formative environment, or whether it's just the triumph of one half of my genetics over the other).

next time your over-shipped, mass-processed jug turns on you, consider that the shelf life of a properly refrigerated quart of fresh all natural and organic milk just hours from the cow is many more times what you've been habituated to endure from your "less expensive" alternatives. and that saves money.

mmmmmmm