I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is. Marian Allen's Amazon profile
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Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
March 11, 2022 at 9:58pmThe amount of ‘stuff’ we have is so diminished from when we had a house, and has never been particularly large (except for NECESSARY homeschooling supplies). I don’t need ‘more’ to be happy; I need enough, and my people.
Maybe that’s what chronic illness does for you: the cost of maintaining things makes them prohibitive. I’ve always been glad I don’t have a second home – even though I’ve loved my sisters’ vacation homes the few times I’ve been there.
One needs hers – three sons and eight grandchildren and isolating during a pandemic!
Marian Allen
March 12, 2022 at 10:46amCharlie and I weren’t (aren’t) exactly hoarders, but we hate to throw anything away unless it’s totally worn out, because 1) somebody might need it and 2) we might be able to take it apart and use the pieces for something else. It comes of growing up poor, I think.
acflory
March 12, 2022 at 6:45pmHi Twinnie. My parents /were/ hoarders, probably because they went through WW2 and the Hungarian revolution AND we had nothing when we arrived in Australia as refugees. We always had good food on the table and we owned a house, but my Dad never bought a car because it was an expense they could live without. They spent money on my education, but I grew up wearing op.shop clothes – thrift store?? Sorry, not quite sure what the term is for it over your way. As a result, I hate waste too. Bedding and towels get recycled as animal bedding, and clothes get worn until they can’t be repaired. It’s a mindset that would horrify most young people, yet I fear they’re going to have to learn to ‘make do’. :/
Marian Allen
March 13, 2022 at 11:17am“Waste not, want not” seems to be a thing of the past in many cases. Yes, “thrift store” is a term over here, usually meaning “second-hand”. We never bought anything at a thrift store, because we had tons of cousins, and we all wore each other’s hand-me-downs. As an adult, I went to a shower where there was a clothesline hung across the room for everybody to hand their cast-offs so we could all take what we needed for our babies and children. One of the little dresses was one my mother made me when I was wee!
acflory
March 13, 2022 at 6:10pmAaaah…I never had that. I’m an Only so it was always just Mum, Dad and me. All our extended was and still is in Hungary. It wasn’t until I married into the ex’s large family that I knew what large family gatherings were all about.
We weren’t poor exactly. My Dad was an engineer so once he became fluent in English he earned a good income, but both he and Mum had very European priorities – food-house-education. Money spent on new clothes would have been money that could have been put towards something with lasting value.
I do like new clothes, but I’d rather have one really good quality piece that lasts for 20 years than 20 cheap items that fall apart in a season. That early conditioning really is powerful. 🙂
Marian Allen
March 14, 2022 at 10:08amTerry Pratchett wrote an extended fantasy series where one of the characters, Captain Sam Vimes, talked about the high cost of being poor. It’s actually now had an economic theory named after it. Sam said, as you just did, that a rich man could buy one pair of expensive boots that would last for years, while a poor man had to buy multiple pairs of cheap boots that would fall apart — “And his feet would still be wet.”
acflory
March 14, 2022 at 6:34pmI’m not a Terry Pratchett fan, but I might be persuaded by that bit of philosophy. The little I’ve read was a bit too tongue in cheek for me. I guess I missed the deeper levels of his writing.
I have to say though, he clearly didn’t envisage the ‘fast fashion’ of the present day. The [predominantly] young women who go for the cheapest clothing aren’t poor. They buy cheap because they only wear clothes /once/. Sometimes not even once before throwing them away. 🙁
Marian Allen
March 15, 2022 at 8:15amI had never heard of people in real life only wearing clothes once! Cuts down on the laundry, but….
As for Terry Pratchett, I can see why you didn’t like him if you began with his first books. Rincewind is SO NOT. I think his good writing begins with GUARDS! GUARDS! Of course, it may still strike you as tongue-in-cheek. We’re twinsies, but IDENTICAL twinsies. 😀
acflory
March 15, 2022 at 10:13pmThe whole fast fashion thing was news to me too until I saw an expose on TV a few years back. It’s driven by women in their late teens who have enough of a disposable income to buy a new outfit for every time they go clubbing. Some show off their fashionista credentials on social media – and god forbid you should be seen to wear the same thing twice.
Definitely twinsies! That peanut soup though… :p
Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
March 12, 2022 at 6:50pmWe weren’t poor, but we were certainly not rich! My dad fixed things – I wish he had taught me how, but he didn’t offer and I didn’t ask, though I watched the process. He could fix almost anything.
I learned when we had our first house, and always found the process soothing – and easier because of all those bits and pieces stowed away, especially when things like Science Fair came up.
Husband brought home perfectly good things they were throwing out at work – for our home school use, thing like precise scales and pipettes and thermometers. He’d scavenge the things they were tossing, and we were happy to have all the slightly-used equipment.
The kids got to do real science with our help.
Marian Allen
March 13, 2022 at 11:19amOh, that’s great! Charlie used to bring home things from school for the kids, too. We had the BEST dictionaries! And the first typewriter I had was a cast-off from Mom’s office. It was a cast-iron BEAST. Not electric, not back then.