To all,
Once while tooling down the highway in my trusty 1978 MGB I saw what looked
like a piece of chrome pipe laying alongside of the inside (left side) of the
fast lane of US Hwy.101. I took the next offramp off and swung back around,
my curiosity going 100 mph (my MGB was doing about half that....) The first
chance I had I was back going in the direction I'd been headed when I first
saw
the mysterious glimmer of chrome alongside the fast lane. Luckily there
wasn't the usual heavy traffic that usually zoom-zoom-zoomed by on this
stretch
of California pavement between Santa Barbara and Montecito. So, I put my
hazard flashers on and slowed down to retrieve my "prize." It turned out to be
a
scratched up and badly dinged Craftsman ratchet action socket wrench. I
slowed down and pulled over, looked all around and making sure I wasn't about
to
be crunched by a speeding 18 wheeler I opened the door on my MGB, swooped by
and snatched up my treasure! Ah-Ha, Gotcha! I quickly (about as quickly as a
person driving a 1978 MGB under those conditions could!) got the heck out of
there! Sizing up my prize, I quickly realized I'd risked my life for something
that would never again work due to the terrible beating it had sustained
while waiting for me to retrieve it from its lonely place of abandonment.
Luckily, for me anyway, there was a Sears store between there and my
destination
point. So just to satisfy my curiosity I decided to go by and see about the
legendary Sears Craftsman Guarantee for myself. I went in and told them that
I'd
had to retrieve the ratchet wrench from the side of the highway (and) as
they could see it was no longer worked nor could it be used, and I was
bringing
it in to see what it was worth. Well, I walked out of there with renewed
respect for Craftsman tools, a brand new ratchet wrench and another $150 of
assorted new tools I'd bought in the excitement of it all! Yes, Sears, was a
company that had started off by bringing value to 1000s of people in the
hinterland through an innovative catalog sales program in the late 19th and
early
20th century. Now in the early 21st Century we were seeing this new
metamorphosis one that will hopefully take Sears into the next century as well!
Kudos to
both K-Mart and Sears for what will hopefully prove to be a valuable
partnership for both.
Albert Escalante
1977 Jaguar XJ-6L & 1978 MGB
Central Coast British Car Club
Ventura, CA.
www.ccbcc.org
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