Until we moved into this house in 2003 and finally bought an oak dining table, my kitchen table was the formica one my parents bought shortly after they married in 1949. I still have it downstairs as a "crafts" table.
I'm not a big fan of our disposable society; I love seeing stories like yours and Gr8's
Me either KC. My dad is the ultimate repurposer. He rarely throws any materials away that he might be able to use down the road.
Prime example -- two years ago I was back at their place for the week, helping get things ready for spring/summer.
He was in the middle of building a new sump pump in the basement -- we've had water on the (concrete) floor whenever it rained much.
We got the hole made and bucket cemented in, and we needed to route the drain hose along the wall, turn an inside corner then to the pump.
He had me get a garage door track out of the shed overhead and screwed it to the wall 2x4s in the basement, and it was a perfect channel to run the hose in.
He said he had that track for about 20 years, and there's another one left if he needs it.