I guess gardener's gloves would be easier to set up an exchange program, though...LOL

Maybe socks next?

she would cut that stocking leg off. Then when she had another run in a different pair of nylons she would cut that leg off. Then she would wear to two pairs at one time and nobody would know the difference.

some of those thrifty ideas are applicable today. Like cutting the paint bottles in half to get to the rest of the paint, or cut a square of poster adhesive into four small squares to hang a poster.

but I don’t think they had pantyhose until later. I know when I started wearing hose we had individual hose that we held up with a girdle or garter belt. Pantyhose, at least what I think of as pantyhose, didn’t come out until the 60’s.
Am I misunderstanding what you’re saying?

Her father was a country doctor and had people pay him by plowing a field on my grandfather's farm or other kinds of barter. People were very poor. Nova Scotia had been in a depression since the ending of seafaring as the hub of economies. Then the depression hit and things were even worse. Often my grandfather didn't charge at all. But my grandmother still had to run the farm and sterilize all his medical equipment and keep the car in running order and pay for gasoline for the huge area his practice covered in Pictou County. There was no way for him to cut back business. Things were very tight but they were luckier than most. Debts owed were simply left on the books until my grandfather died in 1948. Point is my mom was taught to save everything. She ate applecores. She recycled everything in our house in the 1970s before recycling was common. We used to drive our glass and flattened cans out to the industrial area of the city at the time, where we could ad our waste to the small bit the city collected. She was a saver. That is what I meant by 'she grew up in the depression' . It is a well known phrase that leads into 'so x was a very frugal person'. It is a meme. Maybe you don't know people who grew up in the depression? I used the term stockings which may have been misleading. I meant pantyhose. Anthow my mother would wear two pairs of pantyhose , each with one leg cut of, when she was an adult which was after 1950. Don't know when she started wearing pantyhose exactly. But the whole time I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s she would save everything. Including pantyhose.

But my mom grew up in another country. Her poverty situation was due because her father died when she was a child, and their family fortunes were wiped out. Her mother earned a living as a teacher, and my mom and aunt also became teachers, with my aunt becoming a principal of an elementary school. You might say the entire country was into Macgiverisms, learning how to turn junk into usable materials.

My dad was born into poverty and I would say that both parents had one combined motto: Learn to do without.

Weird, how that was a lesson that proved useful once I permanently moved to the U.S.A. Did not expect that.

had the health to work in hard rock mines all over the country. And he was a lovely person. I can't imagine how hard it would be to be a widow back then. Or to be in poverty before social benefits were the norm. We had lots of spinster in my family but they were all middle class and had generous siblings.

I thought you were talking about what your mother did with stockings during the depression. I didn’t realize you were relating how her experiences during the depression influenced her thriftiness later in life.

My parents as well were teens into their early 20’s during the depression years.

He had many ways of making due with what you have. He would just switch the gloves right to left and use the BACK side of each glove! Little weird until they are broke in BUT it works!!

most of the day around my home.

After my hip surgeries my left leg is a bit shorter.

The thong makes up the difference comfortably.

We are still trying to figure out a way of turning the right
thong over and hooking it up and all.


Tikki

with the sliced fruit.

Then she would take the peelings and cores from the fruit and make jelly. The pectin is in the core and peel anyway.

She made quilts from scraps of fabric - she could tell me the backstory on every piece of fabric in a quilt too.

Last edited Fri Mar 1, 2019, 04:51 AM - Edit history (1)

she owned. It is not my favourite but damned if i am going to sell the thing with so much family history to it. I think I'll get cremated in it. Today people quilt not using rags but using fancy printed cottons. I have one of those too. Was left it by an aunt who got it from her aunt. I'm lucky there was so much talent in the family and care.

would wile the time away with sewing projects. I loved going to their house to see the new creations.

That level of sewing is, thankfully, not a lost art. It has gone to a higher level. The sisters post on Facebook what they see at quilting shows. It's truly amazing.

We live in such a wasteful society. Both my parents went through the Depression the hard way - very poor - my mom on a rocky farm with grandma and three brothers, and my dad worked in timber and sawmills, all in middle Tennessee. Both barely made it through the 8th grade, but were sharp as tacks and very ingenious.

They saved everything that could possibly be reused, so therefore didn't have to buy much. Folks in those days were proud to get a new flour sack shirt or dress. In reflection, my whole hometown was quite self-sufficient in the 50s/60s that I can recall. Everyone shared and took good care of what few posessions they had. I inherited their thriftiness and much to my wife's disgust, I hoard everything just like my folks. Just don't ask me to find anything in a hurry....

As an example of how hard things had been, my dad was a rough-structure carpenter and sawmill man and I've never seen anyone that could drive nails like he could in hardwood. He would pick up any nails he saw on the ground, put them in his overalls pocket and then in a coffee can. He had a small section of railroad rail and periodically took all those bent nails he had picked up and straighten them for re-use with a hammer. Any usable wood scraps were saved in his shop and the rest burned in our stove.

Each year mom used Ball canning jars, a huge pressure cooker and many other things that had been in the family for a very long time. As a small boy, she taught me basic sewing on a Singer treadle machine and dad taught me how to use a crosscut. Those were some great times.

Others mentioned quilting and it brought a tear to my eye. I'm 71 now and last year, had the pleasure of having a quilt finished that my mom and grandmother started (probably in the late 50s) before they passed away. We got it done by some artisans that still do quilting in TN, and it will eventually go to my granddaughter.

Thanks for a good thread BB, and for allowing us to reflect.....

They worked with their hands to create so many useful things. I loved going into my uncle's carpentry shed. He grew teak trees in the yard for the material he used. The smell of oil and wood chips was the smell of creativity and magic.

along with running a big farm. That's part of what I meant by my little home town being self-sufficient (compared to today) well into the 70s. I think the population was around 700 or 800 and we had (almost all privately owned):

* three grocery stores (with home delivery),
* four service station/garages,
* two barber shops,
* two beauty parlors,
* two funeral parlors,
* a town health clinic,
* a cabinet builder's shop,
* a small lumber yard,
* a jewelry shop,
* two five-and-dime stores,
* a Belknap Hardware store,
* three feed and seed stores,
* a shoe repair and sales shop,
* a florist,
* a Carnation dairy,
* a drug store with a soda counter,
* a town bank,
* a men's clothing store,
* a radio & TV repair shop,
* one or two women's clothing stores,
* more churches than I can remember,
* a train station/depot,
* two small clothing factories (we called them "shirt factories" ),
* a grade school and high school, and
* two cafe/diners.

Of course, admittedly this town also supplied retail services and schools for a sizable farm population.

We also had a one-man police station & jail, volunteer fire dept, and tiny city hall. The town operated its own water and sewer system. And no one complained about taxes.

What the hell happened to that America?

Sorry to bore you with this, but thanks for allowing me to reminisce.....

I live in Florida, and I do see trends that surprise me. For one thing, our state's population has always been transient. And I think that Central Florida's powerbase has used that to their advantage. Too easy to create a society that leans to tribalism. They do try to recreate that small town feel, but only to the benefit of a small circle within a larger community. If they can't use you to their benefit, you get pushed aside. Meetings "where it happens" will not include you. And people who have power, are cut-throat when it comes to protecting their territory.

I did listen to tapes of the Commerce and Industry Board of our local government, back when we had that. It was composed of local businessmen. What I heard shocked me. It was like they were protecting their own pockets, talking plainly that they were concerned about business inducements from the City to new businesses, if those businesses would compete against their interests. Instead, they pushed for inducements to retain old businesses. So rugged individuals, they were not.

Think about what we have today, that we didn't have before: Chamber of Commerce or business organizations. They are thinking about their own personal interests. These are not philosophers. These are just ordinary people with typical jealousies and prejudices. Add a sprinkle of power to that, and it becomes a corrosive powerbase.

And frankly, it's hard to be a self-sustained small town when the border of the next town begins across a street. Those of us who continue to get pushed out of the decision-making process can go to any of the multiple towns or cities around us to buy from people who will treat us better, than we get treated in our own towns. And I do. That's where I take my business.

So, there you go.