dead batteries

[The Richards <smrm@coastalnet.com>]

In one of those delicious ironies, I had to jump start my Grand Cherokee
with my Interceptor today (I'm sure I could hear the Jensen snickering).
While I was doing so, I pondered the way batteries just go DEAD. Seeming
fine one minute, dead the next. Am I remembering correctly that in the old
days a battery seemed to go out more gradually? Is it the load demand of
modern cars? Battery techonolgy? Generator vs. alternator? Brain cells
playing tricks on my 41 yearold memory? 

Michael, New Bern, NC