The times sure are a changin’.  Someone said that years ago.  I don’t remember who, or maybe it was in a movie some where.  But the truth of the matter is – they are.  The “Old Timers”  always used to shake their heads and talk about what had changed from when they were a children.  Now I’m the “Old Timer”.  I really can’t believe how much has changed in our life time.  All the new technology.  We’ve gone to the moon and now we’re trying for Mars.  Although some things are for the better, sometimes I’m not so sure.  We have a car that just about drives itself.  I don’t know who is scarier when they drive, Bob or the car.  They both make me nervous.  Bob lets the car drive while he plays with the computer on the dash.  They should disable that thing unless you are stopped.  I really think I’m ready for the old horse and buggy days.  Although they are pretty much the same.  The horse used to bring you home too, and trust me, they would take off just as quickly as the car does.  They didn’t slam on the brakes like the car.  Actually brakes were not a thought in their head.  Okay, so scratch the horse and buggy thing.

Now to the point of this post.  Buyer beware.

When the boys were little and we brought them to a restaurant, they would order something they remembered having there before.  When it would arrive they would say “It doesn’t taste like the last time we ate it.”  Well I’ve been going through a similar situation with products.  And I was convinced I was imagining things until the other day.  My neighbor called me complaining about a hoof product that we’ve used for years.  Now when my farrier was here last time, I mentioned that the beautiful purple liquid wasn’t lasting on the horses hoofs like it used to.  My hands, well that’s a different story, but not as much as usual.  He told me it was because of all the wet in the grass that it wasn’t staying.  I looked at him funny, because it always used to last, but I shrugged it off thinking I was just losing my mind (happens a lot lately).  Then my neighbor called.  She reads the bottles every time she gets something, and sure enough, they had changed the formula.  Aha!!!  I’m not crazy.  She called the distributor and they said they didn’t know anything about the change, but they would contact the manufacturer.  Two of the main ingredients had been removed.  So now we are left with colored water, without a drying agent and whatever the other ingredient did (maybe killing bacteria).

How come every time we find a product that works, they either change it or take it off the market.

I emailed Procter and Gamble a few months back asking why, when I was a kid, my mother used a detergent and, with whites, a little bleach.  Sometimes she used a washing machine and sometimes she did them by hand, but my clothes were always clean.  Now a days I have to use a detergent and 5 different additives and my clothes still aren’t clean.  They told me that if they included all that stuff, the cost would be so high that nobody could afford it.  Well guess what, I’m doing it now, with still no results.

When you question a company about why a product was removed from the market they will tell you that one or more of the ingredients are being used to make drugs.  So we all suffer because someone is so stupid to use that stuff, they might kill themselves?  What is wrong with our society.  I’m to the point that I really can’t keep everyone from harming themselves, so let them make that decision and suffer the consequences.  When I was still up north we could no longer buy sulfur powder.  (Haven’t checked down here)  When I was a kid we mixed sulfur with Vasoline and made a wound dressing.  Now they call it Nitrofurazone at a much higher cost.  When we were kids we went to the gas station and got the used motor oil for free to paint on the horses hooves.  Then they added (for a change) a detergent and you couldn’t use it anymore on the hooves.  Now we buy hoof dressing for a sum of money.  Our water was clean and we could turn on a faucet, or drink from a spring and never worry.  Now we have to buy water in a bottle.  They tell you not to drink that water if it sits in the bottle in the heat.  Does anyone think about the fact that these bottle sit in a hot tractor trailer, for who knows how long, before we get it?  Why are we, and our animals, dying of cancer?  Duh.

Okay I’m on my soap box.  Does anyone really remember soap boxes anymore?

I have a friend whose horses were dropping weight.  I knew she fed her horses well, and was always on time with the wormer, so it bothered me.  I had that problem a few months before.  When I inquired and check the ingredients of my grain I found out there had been changes made to the contents.  I switched grain and my horses were back on track.  I mentioned it to her.

So the bottom line is.  If a product isn’t working “the way you remembered it.” chances are it isn’t the same product.  Looks the same, smells the same, but check the ingredients.  The price may even go up, but does the quality?

I’ve spent money trying different Lime Calcium Rust removers for my hard water stains.  I gave up and tried white vinegar.  Surprise!  It worked better and faster.  Cost a lot less, and didn’t burn the skin off my hands.

Maybe, just maybe, we should revisit the “Good Old Days” and go back to basics.

Don’t accept things, read and challenge the way things are “now-a-days.”  Then make a decision.  And don’t hesitate to call them out on a product.  I did.