Going Full Circle

Nat squandering his future inheritance. 

I have often remarked that I was raised by "Children of the Depression." In my Mom's own quaint turn of phrase, she and Dad were "tight as Dick's hatband." Fiscally conservative. Very.

But that was okay. We had what we needed. We never wanted for anything. We may have been slower to adopt expensive new things like color TV or air conditioning because we used what we had. The black and white TV and attic fan were fine, really.

"Using what we had" was a certain way to live and I find that in this time of sheltering in place, I am using lessons I previously ignored.

1. Conserve paper towels. I learned from my mom to use Bounty Select-a-Size, because why use a whole paper towel when a half paper towel will do? And then, tear the half paper towel in half again. Don't use more than you need.

2. Save empty milk jugs. At home, this came in handy as my Dad taught me how to "jug-fish". (By which you hang a fishing line and hook off of an empty capped milk jug. Drop several in a pond and chill in the boat while you wait for one to bob. Then row fast and pull in supper. ) I'm not really sure why I'm saving milk jugs. I do admit I have several of them filled with water and languishing in my empty bathtub. I mean, I don't think corona virus will affect our water supply, but hey,everybody was buying water and well, GRANDCHILD OF THE DEPRESSION.

3. Don't throw away plastic bread bags. On autopilot, I found myself shaking the crumbs out of a plastic bread bag, folding it  nicely and securing with its twist tie. WHY?

4. Hoard unused medicine. When I helped Mom clean out her kitchen some years ago I found prescription medicine older than I was. This week, a Duke Wellness chick called to step me through safety concerns for a 94 year old, i.e. "Do you have a walker, do you have a wheelchair?" Then  she asked "Do you have EXPIRED prescription medicine." "OF COURSE I HAVE EXPIRED PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE!" I mean, really, I've read my share of post-apocalyptic fiction. Medicine is always hard to come by. I mean even  in Outlander, HELLO!  CLAIRE HAS TO GROWN BREAD MOLD TO TRY TO MAKE PENICILLIN. , I don't have the skills to do that, but I can hang onto  unused doxycycline from 2017.

5. Eat every bit of prepared food. Mom was always two meals behind the rest of us, eating leftovers while everyone had a freshly cooked entree. Last week when I found myself having two week old vegetable soup, stale corn chips, and a dried out mandarin for lunch I saw the light.  I'll never scoff at leftovers again.

I am sure I will realize I have adopted other habits as the weeks of our shelter-in-place order roll by. Maybe I will take up ironing wrapping paper or saving paper towel rolls and pie tins. In the meantime, I'm glad I gave up my hair color the end of last year and I seem to have given up snacking to conserve food, so there are definitely some good Jack/Mary Frances behaviors I'm adopting.

In the meantime, are you really throwing that away?

PS - bonus content - if you don't know Mike Cross's Granny's Milk Cartons, please give it a listen. Really.