Recalling Grandma's lessons

"During the Depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles."

-President Franklin Roosevelt

Last Friday I was mid-discussion with a group of people when the economy came up. One young adult (I'd guess she was in her early to mid-twenties) piped in and said "I still go to movies and out to eat, and I see all kinds of other people doing the same. People are still going to go out and spend money."

Perhaps so, but I would venture to guess that this gal is single, has a small apartment, perhaps with a roommate or two, and very little overhead. I would definitely guess she does not have children. I think her mindset is still fairly representative of the majority of the country. Perhaps she's right. Perhaps it is not as bleak as the mainstream media would like us to believe.

Historically speaking, during the Great Depression unemployment rates were much greater. From 1923 to 1929 (the year of the Stock Market Crash), unemployment rates hovered around 3%. Annually the rate leaped upward to a high in 1933 of nearly 25%.* If I consider my young acquaintance's mind set, that would mean that 75% of Americans were working--and out there spending money. Perhaps this is true. The movie industry at that time was enjoying incredible success. 60 to 70 million Americans still managed to patronize movie theaters weekly during the Great Depression. Stars like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney made big money by putting smiles on peoples' faces. It was a form of escape.

Yet at the same time people were also learning to do with less, making cuts where necessary, living tight in tight times. My grandmother lived through the Great Depression. As a young, single mother, with three mouths to feed, she made do by sewing their clothing and sending her children out on the street to sell her homemade baked goods. She grew a garden and canned her food. For the rest of her life the lessons she learned during that time stuck with her. When she passed away in 1981 among her possessions were stacks of aluminum TV dinner trays, bundles of string she saved, and more bags than a person had a right to.

Our generation has forgotten these lessons of the past. We are a throw away society. I admit I'm as guilty as the next person, but I am trying to recall Grandma's lessons, and learn to reuse as I can. When I bring home vegetables from the grocery store in those flimsy plastic bags, I no longer toss them out as soon as I've emptied them. I save them to cover leftovers for the fridge, or to wrap the remainder of a home baked loaf of bread. I use the plastic grocery sacks for my lunch bag when I need to pack a lunch. I save spice jars once empty and buy replacement spices in bulk to refill the empty jars.

Maybe there are those who are still out there spending money and oblivious to the economic change upon us. There are others of us who are cognizant of the changes occurring, however, who are making a conscious effort to make due with what we have. Maybe our economy won't sink to the levels of the Great Depression, but in the meantime it doesn't hurt to become aware of what we throw away and how we might reuse it.




* For more information about the Great Depression and unemployment rates, check this site out: http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20030124ar03p1.htm