Yes, I know. When someone who is of the mature persuasion offers what she considers to be a valuable insight into a current problems, the observer might note the rolling of eyes in the eyes of those not so mature. But, while I don’t offer any comprehensive vision for solution to today’s perceived economic issues, I do have a point of view that deserves some thought.
We were raised, my siblings and I, to appreciate thrift. I don’t mean stinginess, or that you would call us cheap, but we did have our priorities in place when it came to money… and extrapolating from that, our other resources. We emerged on this earth right after the depression and in the midst of World War II, both lending a sense of circling the wagons when it came to earning and spending income.
We weren’t poor. We owned our own house and a car, a 1942 Ford. In order to do these things, with a household of 6, sometimes more depending on what relatives sought shelter and sustenance in our home, we had to live close to the bone. Each of us had one new outfit every Easter and we always were gifted with new underwear and socks for Christmas but most of our clothing originated in the bins at the Good Will on
Third Avenue. Sometimes we wore the clothing as it came, sometimes made over by my mother or grandmother. We never went hungry. We ate simple, nutritious meals made from inexpensive ingredients. Who today eats kidney stew? Not even me. Or soup made from collected vegetable parings, onion ends and chicken necks and feet? Our bread came from the day-old bakery, our books from the public library on 53rd street. My mother’s one extravagance was the fresh squeezed orange juice that she made every morning. The only thing that we owned on credit was our house. No one even considered obtaining something called a credit card, which in those days, were given out by individual stores rather than banks. Extras, treats and such were just that because they were so infrequent. There was always room for something “special” when those extras that are common today were not then.
I, being the eldest, energetically undertook my share of the chores and for that my mother gave me 25 cents a week to spend however I wanted. I soon learned that spending made the money disappear and began saving my earnings in a blue Noxema jar that my father made into a bank by making a slit in the lid.
Like all eight grade females, I took a course called Home Economics. We learned how to budget our money and time; how to shop for nutritious and economical food, how to prepare things like soup stock, a stew, salad and, strangely enough, a tea-based punch. We learned to bake cookies, cake and bread. We were taught basic clothing construction techniques and were required to prepare a fashion show of our creations with refreshments that we had budgeted, shopped for and prepared. The boys in our class took something called Industrial Arts or Shop where they learned basic carpentry, plumbing, electrical and auto repair skills. Antediluvian in terms of separation of the genders, but useful no less. I am wondering what the world would look like if males and females both took Home Ec and Shop?
I am thinking back to that Home Ec classroom in the basement of Carmel High School. It was always sparklingly clean, outstandingly organized and it provided the students with lessons that aimed for similar excellence. Of couwith four rse that excellence was aspirational but aspiring to excellence by precept and example is a good thing. I am remembering the garment that I produced for the fashion show. It was a skirt, made of dark green corduroy. Corduroy fabric has what is known as a noticeable grain, that is, the fabric has a decided direction. If you ignore that, or in my case, forget that, the resulting product will look odd. Mine looked very odd with the grain of the wales going one way on one side of the skirt and the other way on the other side. But I aspired to something better.
And then there was this … another lesson in aspiration vs. real. I was the babysitter for our Home Economics teacher…and her home did not look like the Home Ec room. It looked like my house, with four children sometimes worse.
Those kinds of classes don’t exist anymore. Why? Is there some unspoken belief that these skills are no longer important? Are today’s adults exempt from needing to dust, purchase food or fix a leaky faucet? Basic living skills have been outsourced to whom?
There is an adult sense of control that comes with the ability to live your life with a measure of competence and as we scroll through the answers of “how to” on our computers, searching for the answers that were common to those who had Home Ec and shop, the site ‘you tube” does seem to be the source of, the font of competence for newer generations. But, “you tube” or not, the concept of living within your means, of developing living skills that allow you to live within your means is not out of date and will, for those who follow that idea, provide the means to weather economic ups and downs.
