“But “the Gloomiest Generation” ever? People who went through the Great Depression could be pretty morose. They just had different ways of working it out.”
My grandma worked it out by never throwing away bread bags or cool whip containers, because she figured she could find some use for them.
The only use I could see was a cluttered mess in her cupboards.
She always bought dollar clothes at garage sales or the thrift shop.
She would ask us what we paid for various items of clothing and then get furious if we gave honest answers.
We eventually learned that the correct answer was “these pair of jeans? oh they cost me $2 grandma!”
The only use I could see was a cluttered mess in her cupboards.
She always bought dollar clothes at garage sales or the thrift shop.
She would ask us what we paid for various items of clothing and then get furious if we gave honest answers.
We eventually learned that the correct answer was “these pair of jeans? oh they cost me $2 grandma!”
I knew people like that too. It's funny now that you can put it into perspective, but was frustrating at the time. Good people, but they came from a very different world.
I remember going into the drugstore with my brother to read comics when I was a kid and the druggist starting to hover: "Are you going to buy that? Are you planning on buying anything?" There's a lot that's wrong with today, but it is nice that kids can go into a bookstore nowadays and just browse.
There is a big difference between baby boomers and our grandparents.. My grandmother also went thru the depression. Americans today really do not know what hunger, being without and survival is. We are spoiled, myself included. My grandmother was not a waster. She recycled everything. Times were hard all her life. When she was in her 70-80s she still worked for Goodwill. She didn’t make much money but she was around “bargins” I never, once heard her complain about her life though. She would tell me stories but more in the way of reporting than how bad she had it. Several times when I would whine about how hard things were she would sternly tell me to toughen up. No complaing allowed around her.