Made in the U.S.A.

Lately, especially in light of the downhill spiral of the U.S. economy, I keep pondering about American-manufactured goods or American-grown products. It seems that these are harder and harder to find, and this is NOT a good sign. I can remember about 35 years ago, when I had a Japanese pen pal. The pen pal would ship me a gift or two in the mail that was definitely Japanese-made and unique. Those items were a thrill to receive, and a treasure. But, when it came time to reciprocate, I really couldn’t do it. I thought of toys and fun items (things that a kid or adolescent would like). About all I came up with were some plastic combs (for a girl), and a Frisbee. Both were made in—you guessed it—Japan! That was really the best I could come up with. These kinds of items were readily available in the store and were considered “American.” The best I could rationalize was that just because these items were manufactured in Japan, does not mean that they were products readily available to the public there. I hoped my presents were well-received, but I never found out if Frisbees and such were an easy to find commodity in Japan.

Still, through all this, I came to realize that a lot of goods in the U.S. are manufactured in other countries and imported here.