My Dad passed away last year at 90 years old. He grew up during the Great Depression. He was eleven years old, in 1929, when the Stock Market crashed.
While growing up, my Dad was not involved in the day-to-day activities with us four siblings. Mom did that. He was focused on making money so we had food on the table, shoes on our feet, and music lessons, to name a few.
One Christmas, in recent years, my Dad gave me a gift and made the box it came in from scratch. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t want to spend money on a box, couldn’t find a box to fit or he figured he could make it himself. I suspect it was the former. I know at the time I thought it was silly of him. Yet, when it came time to throw away the box--I couldn’t.
Being a Depression baby is what made my Dad “stretch a buck” or “live within his means.” Sometimes we forget how much we don’t really need to get by.
I try to reuse everything that comes in the house. I tend to be a clutter-freak (and my husband is the opposite). There’s a delicate balance between holding onto something that I might eventually need and throwing something away.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” -- New England proverb
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