Punk's Not Dead

While walking past a 55 gallon drum at work, the chain on my wallet caught. The weakened spot of leather surrounding the eyelet that attached the chain to my 10 year old wallet ripped away, separating the two pieces. I felt heart broken. It is so hard to find a good wallet.

I bought the wallet from St. Paul Harley-Davidson in July of 1996. It had everything I wanted including a zippered pocket, card slots, covered photo ID slot, and Multiple large slots for storing things like money, collected business cards, and insurance papers. I have yet to see a more perfect one. But after only two weeks, one of the snaps broke off. I wrote a nasty letter to Harley-Davidson telling them exactly what I thought of the quality of their product. They responded, telling me to send them the item so they could assess the damage and determine a course of action. I mailed it off and two weeks later received a brand new replacement. That wallet has been with me every day since then, traveling all over these United States via planes, trains, automobiles, trucks, and Harleys.

So at the end of my shift I took my broken wallet down to the other end of the factory where we make the big chain. I punched a hole in my wallet behind the one that had ripped out. I grabbed a one-eye (a chain link with only one rivet instead of the required two) from a mohawked operator's waste bucket and a topping tie strap from the parts bucket. Utilizing an unused inspection table, I riveted the chunk of .404 chain to my wallet. I then fed the S hook on the end of the chain through the rivetless holes at the end of the tie straps. I then showed off my handiwork to yet another mohawked worker. (Sure are a lot of us punks at work.)

My repaired wallet may not last another 10 years or I may keep it together for another 20. We'll see how this fix goes.

My leather jacket of 14 years is held together with duct tape, safety pins, metal accessories, and a generous amount of hand stitching. My wallet is now returned to service through a chunk of broken saw chain. If punk is a state of mind, then it is alive and well and still raising hell.