These thermoses are over 40 years old, and are still fully functional. Heck.. I can't begin to count how many thermoses I've broke over the last fifteen years! Like so many other consumer goods nowadays, things just aren't made to last. This wasn't the case in the "good old days" however. Turn these thermoses upside down and you'll find some interesting info stamped into the steel. The parts of the thermos.. cup, stopper, and filler are listed along with there respective part numbers. Like I've told my kids many times, back in the "good old days" products were made to last a long time. When they did wear out or break, they could usually be repaired or fixed at a nominal cost, because companies used to sell replacement parts for their products.
I'll never forget the coffee maker that my parents owned for the better part of thirty years. My mother set the timer to go off every morning at 5:00 a.m., seven days a week. The burner wore out twice over the years, and my parents would simply take it to the fix-it shop to get it fitted with a new one. It wasn't until recently that they could find no one to repair it, and finally replaced it with a new model.
It disgusts me how many consumer goods and appliances made today are simply disposable. It's brutally obvious that they're cheaply made and are meant to be discarded after a very limited life span. With the current push for sustainability and recycling, consumerism sure isn't helping to reduce our carbon foot print. While collecting retro items is indeed a fun hobby, it also makes me feel good to know that buying vintage can also serve as a way to reduce wasteful consumption.