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fixtrauma
Nomad
Posts: 389
Registered: 11-17-2008
Location: El Centenario & Lebanon,Oregon
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Mood: Monomaniac
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Post photo of Mexican ingenuity!
Having been raised on a farm, I grew up witnessing my Dad using good old ingenuity many many times. I am reminded by
that just about every time I travel south of the border.
It took ingenuity to use a Ford F250 to deliver all of the supports to the shade at Chedraui (the old CCC) in La Paz.
Imagine pulling that off here in Oregon!!
Post your favorite picture of Mexican Ingenuity!
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Cardon
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Posts: 241
Registered: 4-23-2004
Location: Salt Lake City
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This was kind of fun to watch til the front rope broke and the pallets started rolling backwards. A quick two-step got everyone out of the way so no
one was crushed.
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Bob H
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5867
Registered: 8-19-2003
Location: San Diego
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Once upon a time I rode around in a pick-up truck.
It was an oldie but a goodie. It reliably got me from place to place.
However, the driver's side armrest was missing. On long drives, this became uncomfortable. My elbow would sit directly on the hard surface where the
armrest should have been.
Initially, I did not seek to fix the problem. I accepted it based on past experience.
During my childhood, in Miami, I remembered occasionally visiting a repair shop. In the 1960s and early 1970s repairing things was fairly common. In
fact, the place where, as a kid, my 10-speed bicycles had been purchased was called "Mr. Fixit."
"Mr. Fixit" was a store run by a fellow who repaired most home appliances, things in Mexico referred to as "electrodomAcsticos." You could bring in a
non-working television, iron, toaster, etc., and the owner would fix them. Rarely, was someone turned away because it was unfixable.
Mr. Fixit - as the man who ran the store became known - also repaired bicycles in addition to selling new ones. This was until the mid 1970s when he
closed his store.
This foreshadowed a new era. By the end of that decade, fixing things was no longer in style. Repair shops went by the wayside.
The era of "cheaper to buy new" had arrived.
Now, I was already in Mexico but had become accustomed to the "Do not fix. Buy new," mentality.
I resigned myself to the fact I would be informed that a new armrest for the pick-up was out of the question. I half expected to be told that since
the truck was old, I would be better off buying a new one.
One day, I went to an auto body shop to have the truck's oil changed. I sheepishly asked the man in charge if he could find a replacement for the
missing armrest. He said he would check around and that I should call back.
Later that day I phoned. He apologized that there was no replacement armrest to be found anywhere.
I was not disappointed. I had fully expected that answer.
With what he said next, though, you could have knocked me over with a piece of lint.
"We can make an armrest if you like," he offered.
I asked how that was possible. He said that since the body shop worked in fiberglass, they could make a mold and cast a new piece out of that
material. It would not be exactly the same as before but it could be done, if I was interested.
I asked how much it would cost and was told 500 pesos. At the time, that meant about $43. If I were going to be using the truck much, it seemed like a
reasonable investment for driving in comfort. I picked up the truck a day later, complete with new armrest.
That was about five years ago. The truck - which is almost 20 years old - continues to run well. The armrest is intact and works like a charm.
If I had gone to a body shop somewhere in Miami, and asked about casting a fiberglass replacement armrest, I would have been looked at as if I had
three heads. I had been down similar roads with things since "Mr. Fixit's" closing.
You would not buy a new truck because of a missing armrest. But, the armrest is a symptom of something bigger.
I can hear a voice saying, "That truck is old. You are going to have headache after headache with it. Sell it for scrap. Buy a new one. Save yourself
money."
I was told similar things time and again in the '80s and '90s.
Mexican ingenuity, on the other hand, dictates "There is a way. We just have to find it."
It is an attitude developed away from opulent streams of endless consumer goods and people drowning in plenty.
Employing ingenuity to make or fix things occurs when we are put to the test. Through the prism of challenge, few things remain unfixable.
In Mexico, any number of mechanics, masons, repairmen, carpenters, engineers, architects, etc., never got the memo saying things are not worth fixing.
They are living out Napoleon Hill's statement, "Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a
greater benefit."
I have mentioned Hill's quote before. It speaks directly to the times we are in.
The benefit is that with creativity, value can be realized from things we had believed to be obsolete or useless. Unshackled from the gluttony of
rampant consumerism, a clear mind can be employed to take joy from restoring things.
When we are not busy binging on bounty, when we are not pigging out on plenty, our minds can creatively focus on fixing, repairing and restoring
value. As a result, we save money, help the environment and become reacquainted with the truest notion of usefulness.
The ethic of Mexican ingenuity is as timely as it has ever been.
Applying ingenuity to everyday living can empower people, particularly when money dwindles and job prospects are less than robust.
The SAME boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you are made of NOT the circumstance.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Ingenuity photo...
..Out with us last winter and fishing live bait at 230 ft in a very high wind, Alejendro of Mulege put about 32 oz of
egg sinkers on his rig...oh boy... 
Hey....It worked!
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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TheColoradoDude
Nomad
Posts: 287
Registered: 2-10-2009
Location: Colorado/San Carlos, Sonora
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Mood: Paz, Amor, y Tacos de Pescado
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Great topic! I am often amazed at the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the locals. I am currently on the mainland across from Santa Rosalia in San
Carlos, Sonora. I often travel into Guaymas and beyond. Here are a few examples of some good fashioned mexican ingenuity.
Fence made of mattress springs.
Now for the mobile elote mobile. Alot of the BBQ grills here are made with tire rims with a grate on top. Some even have propane hooked into them
like this one used as a warmer.
This shot was taken last year at a Ostioneros de Guaymas baseball game.
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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I agree, Baja is full of Yankee-syle ingenuity. Manuel and I once made a travois for my busted boat trailer axle...got us 30 miles into Mulege and to
Pelon's welding shop.
Like home, almost. You should visit a small town ND blacksmith shop. Parts made from scratch on the spot to make the wheels go round...on
anything!
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Paulina
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3812
Registered: 8-31-2002
Location: BCN
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We call that form of engineering "Mexicaneering". It has pulled us through times. I'll have to look for some photos to add.
P>*)))>{
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
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Mood: Optimistic
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From my thread - Necessity is the Mother of Invention.
Poor man's sombrero. Salud, amigo!
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8088
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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Paulina,
Why don't you add that BBQ constructed from a wheel. I thought that was pretty ingenious.
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Paulina
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3812
Registered: 8-31-2002
Location: BCN
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Here it is.
I was hoping to find a photo of our other bbq that was welded out of a steel drum with a bicycle peddle for the grill crank handle.
On edit, here it is...
P>*)))>{
[Edited on 11-4-2011 by Paulina]
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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fixtrauma
Nomad
Posts: 389
Registered: 11-17-2008
Location: El Centenario & Lebanon,Oregon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Monomaniac
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| Quote: | Originally posted by TheColoradoDude
Great topic! I am often amazed at the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the locals. I am currently on the mainland across from Santa Rosalia in San
Carlos, Sonora. I often travel into Guaymas and beyond. Here are a few examples of some good fashioned mexican ingenuity.
Fence made of mattress springs.
I love that "mattress spring" fence! I also find that an old metal mattress spring is perfect for dragging an freshly
graded gravel driveway. |
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fixtrauma
Nomad
Posts: 389
Registered: 11-17-2008
Location: El Centenario & Lebanon,Oregon
Member Is Offline
Mood: Monomaniac
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| Quote: | Originally posted by TheColoradoDude
Now for the mobile elote mobile. Alot of the BBQ grills here are made with tire rims with a grate on top. Some even have propane hooked into them
like this one used as a warmer.
Ohhhhhh..........mmmmmm.........that corn spread with mayonnaise and sprinkled with grated cotija
cheese........mmmmmmmm! |
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TheColoradoDude
Nomad
Posts: 287
Registered: 2-10-2009
Location: Colorado/San Carlos, Sonora
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Mood: Paz, Amor, y Tacos de Pescado
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| Quote: | | I love that "mattress spring" fence! I also find that an old metal mattress spring is perfect for dragging an freshly
graded gravel driveway. |
Sweet idea! Just the other day I was trying to figure out a way to smooth out our dirt softball/baseball field. I was thinkng a chain link fence but
this will be easier to obtain.
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watizname
Senior Nomad
Posts: 792
Registered: 8-7-2009
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I'm reminded of the worker that drove around in an old sedan that had definitly seen better days. The tires were all bald and went flat all the time.
The old cars AC no longer worked, but the compressor did. So at the end of the day when he wanted to go home, and had a flat tire, he just pulled
out an old air hose, fired up the motor, and aired up his flat, and down the road he went. 
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24baja
Senior Nomad
Posts: 952
Registered: 2-3-2009
Location: Grants Pass Oregon/Bahia de Los Angeles
Member Is Offline
Mood: Wishing we were in BOLA
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| Quote: | Originally posted by fixtrauma
| Quote: | Originally posted by TheColoradoDude
Great topic! I am often amazed at the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the locals. I am currently on the mainland across from Santa Rosalia in San
Carlos, Sonora. I often travel into Guaymas and beyond. Here are a few examples of some good fashioned mexican ingenuity.
Fence made of mattress springs.
I love that "mattress spring" fence! I also find that an old metal mattress spring is perfect for dragging an freshly
graded gravel driveway. |
Back in the 1960's when the Hippie culture came to Grants Pass, there was a commune built here which we called Bedspring Acres because of the fences
created, some of which are still standing. And some of the original family still live on the commune. |
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TheColoradoDude
Nomad
Posts: 287
Registered: 2-10-2009
Location: Colorado/San Carlos, Sonora
Member Is Offline
Mood: Paz, Amor, y Tacos de Pescado
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| Quote: | | Back in the 1960's when the Hippie culture came to Grants Pass, there was a commune built here which we called Bedspring Acres because of the fences
created, some of which are still standing. And some of the original family still live on the commune. |
That is some incredible country that you live in. Sweet drive from GP to Crescent City, CA. Although I had to take an online traffic class
because of that road. 
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durrelllrobert
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7393
Registered: 11-22-2007
Location: Punta Banda BC
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Mood: thriving in Baja
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how to trim a Mexican hedge
Bob Durrell
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Frank
Senior Nomad
Posts: 861
Registered: 6-5-2005
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Is it time to leave yet?
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Just throw it up on the roof and strap it down...
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wessongroup
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21152
Registered: 8-9-2009
Location: Mission Viejo
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Mood: Suicide Hot line ... please hold
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Thanks put a smile on my face....
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jimgrms
Senior Nomad
Posts: 664
Registered: 9-30-2005
Location: oceanside ca
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Mood: its always good
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Having spent 24 year in the Navy you will find the same ingenuity in almost all 3rd world countrys , in the philipine island i witnessed then
repairing sealed compressors on refrigerators
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