It is a common scenario for all of us. After years and years of trusty service, the old refrigerator decides its time has come. Kaput. These days, we head to the internet to seek reviews of the best models out there. We read the comments and the consumer reports. We all had that old fridge going on 29 years, and now it is done. When we finally hand over the cash for a brand new model, we ask, “I wonder how long it will last?”
Whether we realize it or not, the question comes around to us a lot. When the pandemic began, it was on the lips of every person on the planet. “How long will it last?” Or perhaps at the beginning of the Trump presidency, we asked that question too.
Throughout history, we’ve seen the question time and again. Many occurrences happened on this very date, October 26, throughout the centuries. People may have asked the question at the beginning, or maybe we are asking it now. How long will it last?
On this date, in 1492, lead (graphite) pencils were first used. They probably seemed like a novelty back then, what with all the ink and quills flitting about. But for 500 years, they have been an incredible tool, making so many different marks at the control of each person’s hand. My question is, now, “how long will they last?” I bet their days are numbered with the increasing ways to do things digitally. The good old Number Two may be a museum piece before long.
It was on this cool October day, in 1776 when Benjamin Franklin departed for France. He was on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution. Of course, everyone there asked Mr. Franklin, “How long will it last?”
Eventually, we became America, home of the free and industrious. October 26, 1858, was the day Hamilton Smith patented the rotary washing machine in Pittsburgh. The masses, with their washboards and wringers, watched skeptically as the new-fangled machine was introduced. They most likely scoffed, “And how long do you think that will last?”
Another example, in 1861. After 19 months of running to and fro, the Pony Express ended. The answer to the question here? It didn’t last.
People are forever concerned with how much time something has. A garden, a car, a cat. Even sports. Back in 1863, in England, their first Football Association formed, also known as soccer in the United States. They split the sport away from rugby. Many fans wondered if it would last too. It did.
Again, in England, but this time in 1912. An incredible feat of engineering, I imagine, brought them the Woolwich Foot Tunnel under the Thames River, opening on this date. I’m sure the first people walking through watched the ceiling above them, saying, “I hope it lasts.”
In 1918, a man named Cecil Chubb gave the prehistoric monument Stonehenge to the British nation. How Cecil came to own the group of rocks is a story for another day. But let’s go all the way back, 5,000 years, to the people who put the stones there in the first place. I bet they stood around at the end of their hard day’s work and said, “Well. How long do you think it will last?”
In 1949, US President Harry Truman increased the minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents. Good thing that didn’t last. Or did it?
The last case happened on this date in 1977. The very last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. This day is considered the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, one of “the most spectacular successes of vaccination.” We see these triumphs all throughout history if only people would learn. When smallpox began, everyone asked, “How long will it last.” With the science of the vaccine, it ended in 1977. Thankfully.
The air in our tires, the ink in our pens, the rain just before the picnic.
How long will it last?
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“My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn’t that enough for a whole lifetime?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights
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“Just because it won’t last doesn’t mean it isn’t worth something.”
― Nina de Gramont
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“Only stories and magic really endure.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince
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The everlasting first and last
