These past few days I’ve found myself thinking about my maternal grandparents and all that remained steady and unchanging at their house. I’ve written about it all before, but I’ll risk redundancy, and do so again.
Breakfast was oatmeal with raisins. We could choose honey or sugar to go with it. I always chose honey and still do, but my kids complain if I put raisins in our oatmeal. There was orange juice from concentrate in a glass carafe printed with citrus fruits. I liked it when my grandaddy mixed it. He liked it strong. We drank from glasses, not plastic. Lunch was a sandwich of sorts, probably bologna on white. I don’t remember ever being fed pineapple sandwiches as my mom was when she was a child (one canned pineapple ring between two slices of white bread spread with mayonnaise and prefaced with excitement.) Dinner was usually something special, my favorite being shrimp gumbo. There was always some sort of congealed salad on a bed of lettuce (proper presentation a must,) or maybe half a canned pear filled with mayonnaise. I liked jell-o with mandarin oranges in it best. Between meals there was “junk” food: bugles, pop-tarts, neopolitan ice cream and ice cream sandwiches. I think these items were picked up at the Piggly Wiggly especially for visits from the grandchildren. In Grandaddy’s fishing tackle closet there was “Co-cola” in glass bottles. Sometimes, if we were lucky, he’d share one with us.
Usually on the shelves inside the fridge there were tiny portions of food carefully contained in plastic wrap. I am not sure who ate those leftover bits. Their origins were unknown: standard leftovers, or possibly from someone’s plate? My grandmother saved every crumb. My mom still talks about the way Grandmom would squeeze the crumbs from the Christmas Claxton fruit cake into little balls to be served at a later time.
The house was always clean and neat and never felt cluttered. Unless you looked closely, you’d never guess that nothing was wasted; everything of possible use was saved and stored. Tin foil was smoothed and folded. Plastic bags always washed and re used. Worn out boxer shorts had their elastic removed with scissors, the fabric turned into polishing cloths. The cardboard pieces from panty house packages were stored in a drawer beneath the phone for taking down messages.
I think of our compost bucket today, heaped with not only scraps, but food that really should have been eaten, and I wonder what she would think. The opossums at our house surely eat well. One day, we say, we’ll be on a farm and we’ll raise pigs. The food in that bucket won’t be wasted then.
I am reading a book about the Great Depression.
My grandparents were just setting out as young adults when the Hard Times hit. The survival skills they gained during those years never faded, although I never heard them talk about the struggle. By the time I was born some forty years later, those hardships were long past, my grandfather a successful optometrist, my grandmother a wife, mother and Sunday school teacher.
I am thinking about the blessing of work, about modern conveniences, about my children, about my attention and how I should focus it. I am thinking about the example that I set. In fact that is what I intended to write about here today. Easier to recount memories I suppose.
Our weekend was icy and beautiful, but cold. I spent much of my time curled in a chair, mending. Last winter I came across a good sale and purchased wool long underwear for the boys. I am sad to say that they have become riddled with runs and holes like panty hose. After spending hours darning them, I sewed patches made from old felted sweaters over the knees, hiding much of my messy repair work. I am hoping that I have extended the lives of all those pieces of long underwear at least another year. I think my grandmother would be proud.
Angela says
Such a beautiful post -words and photos. I am from GA and you had me at Piggly Wiggly and “Co-Cola”. 😉 We used to call it the Hoggly Woggly though. Thank you for sharing your beautiful memories. I sure do miss my grandma-this post stirred so much.
xo,
Ang
angie(little sister) says
Oh Ginny how I miss them so.Do you remember going in their attic and playing?That is one of my favorite memories.Did you end up with the old annie doll and barbies with their hair butchered?I used to love playing with those dolls.I remember when granddaddy would get busy I would sneak into his tack closet in the small hallway and sit there with a bag of his plastic worms and sniff them,seems weird now lol, but I loved the smell of them.I have a pack of them that from time to time I still pull out and smell.Funny huh.There were so many things about that house and those two little precious people that were so magical.I miss them so much.I think Granddaddy would have been a great example for my husband.Their lives as children and teenagers were so similar.They enjoyed the same things too.I could go on and on but we will save that for another day of sipping tea and conversation.Hope we can make that happen soon.Love you.
Holly says
Hello everyone, I’ve been thinking about exactly the same thing lately. Maybe it’s the state of the economy, and everyone is trying to save wherever possible. I know we are. We’ve tried to make everything we buy, cook, use… last longer. We don’t toss out food that can be eaten tomorrow. I make quilts, and have been feeling the need to make more scrap quilts and not buy fabric until the scraps are used.
I’ve also been thinking about my grandparents, and ggp. They also saved everything and moved it as they grew older. They knew what it was like to not have cash and to need something. My grandmother grew up in a house with 11 children. She had one thing left over from childhood, it was a tiny porcelain doll, she found on the ground, walking behind her families covered wagon, as they moved from Oklahoma to New Mexico.
Maybe your son needs a bigger box for under the bed? He apparently feels the need for stuff. My husband has a need to have his “stuff”. It’s kept out in the shop though.
Only In Louisiana ~ documenting the Adventures we call Life says
These are such beautiful photos…enchanting. I love the birds flying in front of the red barn…..you have a great eye for composition. I am working on my knitting skills and they are coming along slowly but surely!
Jill says
What a lovely post. And isn’t Secret Gifts a nice book? I gave it as Christmas gifts to the older folks in my family because I liked it so much.
Jessica says
Hi Ginny,
I’ve been thinking about the same lately. A combination of too much stuff and too much waste. There’s lots of work to be done here.
Love your new banner. It feels like something out of an Elsa Beskow book.
catherine says
Yess we waste sooo much nowadays..love your photos of the icy branches!
lori says
really beautiful photos and words. i like your mending, and your grandma and mum. such a beautiful post ginny.
Rahel says
An absolutely beautiful new banner! Wonderful colour combination and the jacket is great! I many times think about my gradparents and how much harder life was for them- and I never heard them complain. We live much more comfortable today but I also try to live a simple life without wasting food/ buying unnecessary things/ recycle and up-cycle whatever I can .
Linda says
Oh so much like my grandparents. Scheduled and routine. No waste. They had a huge garden. My grandmother loved to clean. Not me. Too bad that didn’t pass down. And I also grew up eating things in beds of lettuce like pears and pineapples! I haven’t had that in so long. Your photos are dreamy as usual.
Cj says
Did you knit that coat? Beauty! Pattern? Gosh nothing makes me feel better than making something out of nothing, love your grandma! Thanks for sharing.
Ginny says
Yes, that’s Phoebe’s Sweater. Here’s my ravelry link
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/GSheller/phoebes-sweater-2
It’s a great pattern!!
Jen says
The photos were gorgeous. I love how your children ‘appear’ amidst the animals and beautiful landscape. They are part of IT all as well.
Your memories were wonderful. I, too, share similar memories of sweets, and the same meals, over and over.
Ellen says
Very sweet remembrances… my grandfather died shy of 100 by 2 years. He saved and was very resourceful and creative with his frugality. A welcoming and generous man. I wish that I had paid attention more intently and listened.
Carrie says
Those first three photos are stunning! Ice and snow just isn’t the same without trees to cling to (I live/work in Antarctica).
Sarah says
My grandmother was a small-town minister’s wife and the daughter of Salvation Army officers. She grew up being told that there were always people with less and she was amazing at stretching things without our ever feeling as if we were doing without. I must admit, in the frantic pace of life these days, I can be very wasteful and it really bothers me. When I have time, the old bread gets ground up for crumbs and put in the freezer and the overripe bananas from the fruit basket at school come home for muffins but truly, I don’t do anywhere near enough saving of food. On occasion, I think about how much we have compared to others in the world and what we waste and I just feel sick.
Thanks for the good reminder.
K says
I love the new header. So beautiful. It’s like an enchanted ice forest.
erin says
I often think about how we could salvage and save and our overflowing compost bucket now feeds our chickens which removes some of the guilt I feel about tossing half eaten browned bananas and table scraps in.
I would like to make a large canvas that says “Mend + Make Do”….perhaps one for our wallets as well.
Love the patches.
e.
paula says
Ha…much older than you. My parents & inlaws lived thru the depression. My mil still coupons & saves. I try to be frugal…but the chickens & pups get lots of left overs around here as well. Studs Turkel did some books of interviews about the depression. I really like his books. He interviews people & writes down what they said (edited I’m sure). I should say interviewed. He’s gone now as well.
Marrissa says
A beautiful post. I love hearing stories like this, they inspire me to be a better person by recycling more and easing on the waste. It’s truly horrible how much gets wasted nowadays. You’re grandparents sound like wonderful people, thank you for sharing. You’re photography is amazing too, I want to give that little calf a big cuddle 🙂 Keep well, Riss
Mom says
When you called last night, thinking about my Mom, your Grandmother…it threw me into a tizzy of figuring things out. Yes mother was clean…not messy. Why? And why can’t I pull it off as well as she did? Why do I have a basement, an attic, and tons of closets full of ridiculous things I plan to “make into something one day?” Mother bought only what was necessary because of her depression experience. I bought everything I could fit into because of her depression experience.
Of course Grandmother and I did share the habit of collecting rubber bands, paper clips, milk caps, cardboard of all sorts, and so on. The difference was that Mother kept the rubber bands from her newspapers in a little carefully wound rubber band ball. I bought a Rubbermaid organizational product to toss them in. Mom’s rubber band ball never got too large because she used them all the time. My rubber bands are still in the tub I stashed them in…somewhere.
I also vividly recall watching Mom write Bible study notes on those hose cards she saved. There was never an excess of them. She was quite the student. (She also used fingernail polish to stop pantyhose runs, avoiding the purchase of new hose. Or she would cut off a torn up leg from each of two pairs of pantyhose and wear both panties at the same time. She said it made a nice girdle.) As for my cabinets and tubs of cardboard, they are waiting for the next visit from you. We are all going to have craft time and paint them into something wonderful. Aren’t we?
Thank you for reminding me of mother’s virtues, things I sometimes made fun of her about, regrettably. I can’t say that I have ever had a pair of shoes resoled to keep from buying a new pair. Yet my piano and art lessons were likely funded by such measures. I CAN truthfully say that I pull out the Rit Dye from time to time and freshen up my old clothes. But mercy, it doesn’t keep me from getting new ones. Hat’s off to my Mom from yours.
CrunchyCatholicMomma says
Hats off to the three of you! I grew up with very little money…that is definitely an understatement. I learned to make due with what I was given and never waste food, we sewed all our doll clothes and made Barbie houses from every cardboard box that we could get out hands on. Our doll houses were so great, the adults displayed them in the livingroom for their friends to see. I had one sweater and that was it until next winter. My parents were very smart with money and never bought anything they didnt absolutely need.
“Mother bought only what was necessary because of her depression experience. I bought everything I could fit into because of her depression experience.” I too buy more than I need to fill the void I think I need to fill just because I can. Thank you Ginny’s momma, you have given me alot to think about.
McKenzie says
It’s so nice to read about things like this. When I was younger, it would never have crossed my mind to repair an article of clothing. Now, after realizing the cost of making something or of buying it, not mending is not an option. I have a whole pile of clothes to be repurposed or mended. Now I have some motivation to work through it!
emma says
when i was little (until 7 or8) i spent most of my time with my grandparents. You can’t forget all these “littles things”, it makes so wonderfull memories
Monique R says
The pictures of Larkspur in her beautiful red remind me of that fairly recent movie about Red Riding Hood. It stands out so clear against the cold winter you have photographed. Love it!
Tirza says
I too, often think of my grandparents, my Danish ones, who had a hard life in Denmark but had regular routines and a simple, happy life. It was so comforting to me. Another book I think you would love is: Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression. It is such a nice book. I read parts of it aloud to my girls and they love it. I love the photos of the ice and Larkspur in the red Phoebe. Beautiful!
Kelly says
I mended this weekend, too, except it was boring sock darning. I really do hate darning socks and only do it for the really nice ones. I reminisce about a time when things were saved and reused and fixed instead of thrown away. All we can do is the best we can, and it’s nice knowing there are other people out there with similar values. 🙂
steph says
oh, ginny! such a lovely post. I love everything–the memories,the sentiment of waste not, the pictures, and of course, the glimpses of knitting and sewing. We have so much to learn–and pass on–from our ancestors.
kate says
You have a gift for writing about regular, everyday things so beautifully. This post made me ache, made my eyes tear up. The photos are stunning, the sentiments lovely. Thank you.
Stephanie says
Ginny your pictures are perfectly dreamlike; a little like a fairy-tale. That combination of red and ice is perfect.
Betsy says
What a lovely, lovely post. Thank you for sharing. It must be the day to remember grandparents. I’m posting a picture today on my blog of the very first crochet project I made when I was seven, under the tutelage of my grandma. She was also a very frugal woman who lived through both world wars and knew how to save and reuse practically everything on the farm.
Thank you for the beautiful pictures. You have an amazing talent.
Blessings,
Betsy
http://betsy-thesimplelifeofaqueen.blogspot.com
molly says
oh ginny, your photos are breathtaking! and i love your new header so very much.
also, i’ve been thinking about the same things lately re: how we live. i imagine that those who lived through the great depression and the following lean years had so much less, but took better care of what they had. i try to live up to that example, yet just this morning, i had to throw away a pack of chicken legs because i hadn’t used them in time. such a horrible waste! conservation and maintenance of resources is an ongoing practice, as is living simply.
Mary says
Such wonderful memories and beautiful pictures – thank you for sharing!!
Nadja says
Oh, Ginny…I love your new header, posted photos and post.
I had two extremes in my own grandparents. My American grandparents were a bit on the wasteful side, as if success in this world meant acting as though you had never experienced hardship. Leftovers were tossed out or given to the dog. My paternal grandmother had a housekeeper who would take leftovers home because she couldn’t see giving the leftover steak and shrimp cocktail appetizer to the dog.
On the other side were my German grandparents, who experience two World Wars. My grandfather kept things to the point of being rather silly–tins of saved paperclips and erasers; scrap paper, old calenders, whatever. He would not abide leftovers, having suffered starvation as a POW in France.
I grew up in financially tight circumstances myself, and as a result am very frugal. Like your grandmother, I save tinfoil and zip-lock bags. The chickens and occasional pig help me feel that food is not wasted, but eating out feels very wasteful, even when we take home the leftovers. It is the cost–I find myself mentally calculating what it would have cost me to make the same meal at home!
It is good to cultivate this thrift, as long as it doesn’t become a miserly hoarding. We should not be wasteful of the blessings we have received.
It is funny that you’ve been mending. Nicole at Frontier Dreams mentioned some of her mending in a post today, and the pile of mending on my dresser has been making my “To Do” list for the past week (time to break down and get to it!) You would be surprised how many people just do not mend these days. We live in such a disposable society…
annita says
Beautiful pictures! I have wonderful memories of my childhood and visiting my grandparents and my great-grandparents. I could have written some of your post! +JMJ+
Kelly says
Ginny, those photos are just beautiful. It’s funny, as I was scraping plates last night, I had the very same thought about our *future* pigs.
heathermama says
actually that is a great idea with the longjohns the knees are always the first to go. why they don’t reinforce them to begin with i will never know.
there seem sto be a thing lately on simplifying. i think “we” finally hit the spot and have discovered that things do not buy happiness. at our house too i am seeing it. cleaning out, reusing, giving away, making plans to do thing better… it is a wonderful, but slow process.
Heather says
I am also reading Gup’s book. These thoughts have been swirling in my head as well. I hope to change our spot soon, so we return to the big garden, animals and compost. Until then I am trying to remain frugal and wise with our possessions. Mending just takes time and a needle and thread.
Teri says
I love this post. Made me laugh about the jello with the mandarian oranges. We had that a lot growing up and secretly I still like it! So many days I wish in our lives we were more simple like this and our kids learned to never waste. I am trying but will never have those kind of “exact” days.
Sonja says
Such serene pictures. What is the tree with the red berries? It’s so beautiful and I haven’t encountered them here here in Western WA. Just last night, I told my husband that both of my grandmothers would be 100 this year. I’m thankful for great examples for us to learn by.
jennifer says
Your grandparents remind me of my own. I remember them saving even the tiniest portion of food and covering in with plastic or aluminum. My family too called it Co-Cola. They never got anything new “just because”. Everything was very simple, uncluttered and functional.
Kristen says
Such wonderful memories! I love the resourcefulness of our grandparents and try to recreate it here, too. The patches are darling. (She would be so proud!)
Cynthia says
I remember my Nana as a thrifty, use everything woman. It was so ingrained in their nature. I wish it was more innate for me. We are all working on being less wasteful in this house. I particularly remember her cold cellar with all kinds of goodies, and coddled eggs with buttered toast fingers. I must tell you how much I love your photographs. So evocative.
NicoSwan says
Beautiful sentiments Ginny.
That made me tear up a little.
I’m thinking of my great grandparents now, who taught me longevity, the strength in faith, wholesome living and other things of that nature.
They passed down certain knowledge to me that I share with my children. Like how to calm yourself around the bee boxes, the importance of bees (that was great grandpa’s favourite place – to be with his workers – with the bees), and the importance of eating from the land (God’s gifts).
I was blessed to know them before they passed on and I miss them often. Especially in the canning season, in the fall when we would be picking pecans, and when I’m making the pie crusts for the holidays.
Peace to you and your family.
del says
I’m sure your grandmother would be proud.
My grandparents came up through the Depression, too, and those hard times made them the great savers they ended up being. I often wish people today were as frugal.
Renee Anne says
My grandparents were children when the Depression hit. My grandmother’s family luckily was able to survive pretty well because my great-grandfather had a job at the tire factory (he died of lung cancer that he got as a result of the fumes in the factory). My grandfather’s family, on the other hand, had it a bit tougher, though they still managed to survive fairly well. They were a farm family in northern Wisconsin.
They were also somewhat similar to your grandparents in that they kept everything…and if it was important paperwork that someone else needed, they had 50 copies of it. As I’ve been cleaning out their house these past few years, I keep finding more and more things that make me shake my head and think, “really? You kept this. Really? Why?” For example, when I first cleaned out the guest bathroom, I came across an old glass medicinal jar from the 1940s. The label read “Baby Green” and it’s contents were diaper rash cream. Well, the only “Baby Green” that it could have been for was my mother and she was born in 1947. It wasn’t so much that they still had it that was somewhat bothersome to me…it was the fact that it had moved from northern Wisconsin to southern Wisconsin, and from at least five different locations in the same town. They kept moving it. It never occurred to them that they didn’t need it and should get rid of it. Their thought was, “well, someday ‘Baby Green’ might have a child of her own and then we’ll be ready with diaper rash cream.”
I threw it out. Along with a bunch of other items that they kept for some unknown reason.
Tracey says
Your grandparents sound very much like mine. I think of my grandparents often, especially when I put an egg shell in the compost or when I tie an apron on to prepare dinner. I learned a lot from my grandparents and while my children never met them, they can tell you all about them!
Oh, we always had a pear half filled with mayo and chedder cheese…makes me shudder now to think of it! 🙂
Louise says
So nice. Isn’t it interesting how much more we examine the families that we grew up in, their practices and proclivities, once we have our own children to manage, encourage and lift up? I, too have recently been thinking about the examples that I’m showing my boys and what they’ll remember from their childhoods and from our home. It’s a lot to contemplate.
janene@EverydayEO says
I always think of my grandparent’s simple lives filled with their hard working hands–I’ve had my grandparents on my mind because my grandma who never worked outside the home–but watched dozens of kids over her lifetime–died before I became a mom and now I have questions on my heart and her wisdom would be so insightful. ..
Kelli says
I too look on my grandparents with love and fondness. So lucky we are to have gleaned the wisdom that came with knowing them…as so to pass on this heritage as well. I will never ever forget snapping beans with my Nannie or sipping buttermilk over cornbread with my Papa. They’ve both been gone for so long, but the softness of her skin, the smell of him as he came in from the garden…the gentleness of their spirits and hugs. It’s all emblazoned in my memory. I can only hope to share what I learned from them to my own children.
What treasures you were blessed with. Thank you for sharing.
Blessings,
Kelli @ SustainingCreativity
Kristen @ St Monica's Bridge says
This is a beautiful tribute to your grandparents. My great-grandparents were very much the same. Thank you for sharing.
All Things Beautiful says
This was a beautiful post. Thanks for sharing it with us.