When you reach a certain age, it dawns upon you that you have more life behind you than you do ahead. So perhaps it is natural to long for the past and to mourn its passing.
I look back at those I have lost personally. Family and friends. I look back at those we have lost professionally. People we worked with, people we admired and looked up to. Colleagues and co-workers; industry pioneers and industry leaders.
Even though most would agree that modern demolition and construction equipment is better in every conceivable way than the machines of yesteryear, we still long for those names from the past: Aveling Barford, Benford, Broyt, Drott, Hymac, O&K, Poclain, Priestman, Smalley. All those great names either swallowed up or gone forever.
Yet there is something I miss almost as much as the people we have lost; and perhaps more than the machines. It is hard to describe; impossible to define; intangible. It is not so much a thing as a feeling. But this industry used to feel different. Better.
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