When I was a kid, we did not waste anything. My mother may have well never had a garbage disposal, because nothing ever went down it. If there were left overs, they were consumed the next day. Period. Often, there was a disagreement at the table over who got the last piece of chicken. Dad got the chicken, so you eat the beans or bread and butter. No left overs. Clean your plate. There are starving kids in India.
The children of the depression did not waste anything. A modicum of this view still exists within me and other children of the children of the depression.
Do you know how long a bar of soap can last? There is a sink off of the pastor's office at church. When we got possession of that part of the building in November of 1999, I bought a bar of Irish Spring soap. I finally used it up last month. Ten years, that bar of soap lasted.
Today I am drinking yesterday's coffee. Pour it out of the pot, heat it up for 60 seconds, and I don't have to make a new pot today. Yes, it is not quite as good as fresh, but it will work. I occasionally wonder, how many pots could I make in a row, using the same grounds?
When we buried my Dad, he left behind 4 shirts, two pairs of pants and two pair of shoes. And one cat. He didn't need much. He drove the simplest of Ford products his entire life. He only got electric windows when hand crank windows were no longer available.
Yesterday's generation has a good deal to teach today's generation. In this period of economic whatever, we can all use to "want" just a little bit less. Life does not consist in the collection of our possessions, but in the people that we know and love. Most of the people that I admire can live with a ten year old sliver of soap and yesterday's coffee.
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
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5 comments:
I hear you Jeff and I agree with you for the most part. But a bar of soap lasting 10 years--I'm a bit concerned that no one ever used it. I wouldn't have--bar soap usually looks dirtier than my hands are. ; )
I know your blog wasn't all about the bar of soap. I am a child of parents that lived through the "great depression" and I know exactly what you're talking about.
I have a hard time throwing lots of things away and it's not because I'm a collector of stuff. My dilema right now is a set of World Book Encyclopedias from the 1990s. The thrift stores won't take them because they are basically obsolete today. Do they even sell encyclopedias anymore? People get their info from the Internet. But these are beautiful books--like brand new. My kids told me to throw them in the trash--a few at a time. I can't do that. When I think of all the stuff that is ending up in landfills all across our country because we feel the need to replace the old with the "new and improved", it really concerns me.
So maybe I'll just enjoy a cup of yesterday's coffee while I dust off my encyclopedias.
As I read this today, I am drinking yesterday's coffee! :) Betty
Now come one Jeff. You know there isn't a guy in the country who can't make a bar of hand soap last ten years. That's why guys incur the wrath of the handwashing patrols.
And about the coffee? We have a friend who gets steamed if anyone dares to wash his coffee pot. He says the flavor is better in a dirty coffeepot. Well, give one to this depression kid. He is saving dishwashing soap. Someone has to save this planet.
All in fun.
Your comments made me drift back to growing up with my grandmother. Those were the days before microwaves, so I often saw yesterdays coffee on the stove in a small pot. And soap slivers were never thrown away, merely "melded" onto the new bar. Granted, it made the new soap look like it had an odd growth, but it worked just fine.
It also reminded me that she prayed without ceasing and was forever thankful for life's leftovers. She recycled and repurposed things before it was in vogue. Waste was not tolerated in her house. I admire her still.
I try to get my family to think about some of the things they trow away. I try to re-use whatever I can. But I have to draw the line on left overs. My mom would shove 2 day old left overs down us like we were the garbage disposals. I'm one i guess that would say I probably waste more than I should when it comes to life's basics. There is a lesson in your blog, sometimes it's better to be happy with what you have.
Greg
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