I interviewed my mother about frugality and how she lives and how her parents lived. What were some of her experiences on the subject.
The following are her comments and stories. Thanks mom!
Lessons from the Depression
Ever heard of depression ware? Made with cheaper ingredients, glass and tableware.
It was more fragile because of that but also delicate and considered great collector’s items today.
Most food came in jars and not cans yet. Many people had no packaging at all. They had a smoke house to hang their meats and a root cellar to keep potatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, etc.
They also used drying processes for plums (prunes) grapes (raisins) apricots, apples, peaches, etc.
Other ways they preserved was in pickling, something done since the middle east and their olive business was carried on in the new world with cucumbers, okra, green tomatoes, even watermelon pickles and relishes.
Preserves were just that, which took a lot of sugar.
Containers—Packaging
Reusable was the rule in the day. I still save the little metal tins. Periodically some manufactures have tried to return to that trend. I can remember when Premium Saltine and Zesta had their tins, and then the stacks would come out in clear plastic wrapper with a tab denoting the brand, sort of like the bags of cereal. You buy the tin once and then buy the bag off the shelf, for a lower economical price.
When buying sugar, flour, other dried goods, you brought your reusable tins and the grocer weighed out so many pounds into your tin. This is also the time of the “flour” sacks, and if you could afford, you bought in large bags and placed in your own bins in your kitchen cupboard. Grandma Andrews had those.
Plain white flour sacks were bleached and used for kitchen towels. The colored feed sacks, made with printed cotton would be washed and used to make clothing, curtains, scraps added to quilts.
Even worn out clothing and hosiery were made into rag rugs. The string from the feed sacks was saved into a ball of string. String, twine and rope cost good money back then and a piece of rope was mended with string, and the twine from a bale of hay was balled up and saved for the next harvest to wrap bales again.
Reversible skirts, vests and other clothing items were once very popular. You had two skirts, vests in one and added dimensions to your wardrobe. You have already done that with some of your bags. Your Grandma Andrews liked to make sure that the flip sides of her quilts were as pleasing as the fancy piecework tops. A good job of crocheting or knitting was suppose to be reversible or it was poor quality. I believe I have readily mentioned my reversible doll, and I didn’t even like dolls.
Packaging used to be very simple. You got your “powders” in a folded paper. I told you about the butcher’s paper. As a little girl, we got candy weighed out in a little brown paper bag, a nickel for an ounce of licorice toes (nibs) they call them now: Penny candy. Some things were actually 5 for a penny. Those were the days. Yeah!
Clothing and other items were wrapped in plain paper and string. Today, you would have to have some fancy paper. I can remember when all the stores gave out those great rope handled reusable shopping bags, Mom would use for trips, white elephant sales at school, etc.
One funny note, although your Grandpa Andrews never drank, he had his collection of whiskey jugs, which were great reusable containers for everything. He even used them as musical instruments. No kidding. I loved that.
Your grandfather saved string that held flour sacks closed and made a ball--used it to mend lots of thing including his socks. That same string worked at the end of my cane pole when fishing with safety pin and grasshoppers or grub worms found in the woodpile. Lol.
