Cheap plastic shovels

I was shoveling snow the other day, and thinking about how my younger brother and I made all sorts of money on snow days as boys in Jersey City in the early-to-mid 1970’s, by shoveling snow for older people and local businesses. Back then we used an old steel coal shovel which my father had for years, and also an old steel snow shovel with a big scoop. Those shovels were heavy, but they could move a lot more snow than today’s cheap, light plastic shovels can. They could also break through the ice, even heavy ice, without much trouble. We even often helped stuck motorists free their vehicles from the snow by cramming our shovels under their car tires. Never gave it a thought that it may harm the shovel, and I don’t think it ever did! Today’s cheap plastic shovels just bounce off of the ice, you could not step on one without fear of it breaking, and they are fairly useless with a heavy wet snow. I really miss those old steel shovels. This nation is certainly in a decline, its men getting soft as hell and many of them not much stonger than women. A sign of that decline is the plastic shovel! Who the hell thought it was a good idea to switch away from good old Pittsburgh steel in favor of cheap chinese plastic? Another sign that this once-great country is going down the tubes. Of course, there are many more, but the cheap plastic shovels symbolize it for me, at least in winter.