A couple of days ago I swung over to my grandparent's house to help them get an old cedar chest out of their attic. My grandparents are getting along in years and suffering a lot of health problems, so if my oldest son and I didn't do this for them, no one would. I'm actually quite happy to help. My grandparents were born during the Great Depression and don't ask for help with anything very often. They are also extremely frugal, and a bit pack-rattish, but very generous just the same.
My son and I got the cedar chest down (a very nice, antique Lane cedar chest) with no problem, but while I was in the attic I noticed an old, wooden pushbroom. The handle was snapped in half, but then had been slapped back together with some electrical tape with about six inches of overlap on the broken handle pieces. It really was darn near unusable because anything more than moderate pressure would have snapped the handle or bent the tape so far you wouldn't have been able to actually push the broom.
I chuckled a bit and showed the broom to my grandparents who had forgotten it was up in the attic. I said, "Grandpa, did you really do this?" He replied, somewhat indignantly, "David, it still worked just fine." I had temporarily forgotten to whom I was speaking. My mom has told me stories about what it was like growing up with World War II / Depression Era parents. NOTHING was taken for granted. If something broken could be repaired, it was, no matter how ugly or barely usable the repaired item was. My mom told me that my grandma used to buy chicken necks and backs to make chicken soup for the family because they were the cheapest part of the bird.
Nowadays we live in a country of excess and the presumed disposability of just about anything (including people). We live in a place where some people, who are completely physically capable, have to call AAA to change their roadside flat tire because they don't know how to do it themselves. I would have replaced the handle or bought a brand new pushbroom if the handle snapped in half, but I can change a tire.
The excess disturbs me sometimes when I think about it too much. I wonder what happened to the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" ideal. What happened to the country full of people who would have pieced together the pushbroom like my grandfather did? I'm sure some of these folks still exist, but I think they are a dying breed, and that's a shame. The rest of the world looks at us as wasteful and extravagant, and they have a right to.
Here's hoping I'll try to tape the pushbroom next time.
5 comments:
I wrote a paper on the Great Depression in college where I used my grandmother as a first person source. You really have no idea how hard it was on people until you hear first hand accounts...one day those stories are going to cease being told. Will anyone care?
We do live in the land of excess. Personally, I hate having too much. Naturally, I'm not referring to money (which I never have enough of), but possessions. I get claustrophobic in cluttered spaces. Now, more than I ever did in the past, I tend to "put things back on the shelf" rather than giving in to impulse buying.
Cool story dad! Very excellent point!
I had a moment of wondering when krazy-glueing a glazed, $5.00 Wal-Mart ceramic flower pot back together to transplant a new houseplant. It seemed silly to throw it out when it broke into clean shards, and I'd become fond of the plain green glazed pot. How many people would do that instead of just going back to Wal-Mart to buy another one?
When I drive through the new housing developments in my area and see so many houses with 2000+ square feet for a family of four, then return home to my 2 BR 1 BA 1950s bungalow, I wonder what happened to our culture. Since when did families need all that...space? I don't know whether this is reflective of the fact that so few families seem to be close to each other, or whether the excess is the cause.
Lord Chimmy - I hear you. A Great Depression is something I hope I never have to experience first hand, but I wonder sometimes if it isn't what America needs to wake up and smell the coffee? And I agree on clutter. My wife has really helped me get rid of a lot of crap I just never needed.
Aurora - Nice to see you here. :)
Agent Sierra - Lately my wife and I have been feeling that our 2700 square foot house is more than we need, as well. It was a HUD repossession and we got it cheap. We'll be selling in a couple of years and finding a smaller place for sure. Probably about 2000 square feet, but we still have kids at home, so not too much smaller than that. But to answer your query, I think it's excess. I don't think we need places that large, but Americans think they deserve places that large, if you catch my meaning.
I don't see what's so "great" about the Depression...
Seriously, folks, there is nothing wrong with frugality, but there is nothing wrong with having a 2000sq. ft. house for my family of 5 either. Human beings need quiet solitude just as much as they need companionship. Now, a 21 bedroom mansion for a rich movie star and her deadbeat boyfriend...
Anyway, the folks of the Depression lived with such extreme frugality because they HAD to, not because they WANTED to. Everyone wants to live life to the fullest and give their families the best they can. I salute and honor all those who had to struggle through those hard times. We can all honor them by learning from their values and trying to apply it as best we reasonably can.
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