Interesting post.I think you will find this oldtimers view interesting also.
Story Of A Saver
About four year?s ago, long before "Y2K" entered the public
consciousness, I attended an auction. It was an all day affair, going from 9:00 in the morning to
well past nightfall of that summer day.The owner of the large house and farm outbuildings, a lady well into her nineties, had passed away and
the heirs had arranged the auction to settle the estate. By the time darkness was falling, the original
large crowd had dispersed and there were only a couple dozen diehard bidders remaining, myself included. That the auctioneer managed to keep talking for nearly 14
straight hours with only a couple
of small breaks, remains a marvel of endurance to me.
During the last two hours, many boxes were brought forth from the house and it was specified by the
iron-throated auctioneer that only the cardboard boxes were
being sold,not their contents. The
contents were gratis, since they consisted of all kinds of canned food,coffee, and other store bought
goods for which a re-sale had legal considerations. As the boxes coming out were quickly examined
prior to bidding, I noticed most of the contents had sale tags on them,and knowing the pattern, I
would also have bet that a "senior" discount had been used whenever possible. I overheard many
laughs and comments. "Do you believe this? The woman had enough toilet paper for a year!" "What
did she think she was going to do with all those cans of coffee?" "She must not have had anything
better to do than buy soup and canned corn and stick it on a shelf. Poor woman must have been
senile." Opinions of the deceased?s sanity, or lack thereof, did not prevent very good bids being
placed for the boxes which happened to contain that "free" coffee,however, and every other
cardboard box was sold in quick order. To my amazement, there was no competition for a large box
full of various bars of soap, still in the original packaging. I got it for a two dollar base bid. I had
many private thoughts I didn?t express that evening about those who continued to joke and sputter in
laughter over such quips as, "For gawd?s sake, what was she thinking?There was going to be siege
or something? Maybe we?d better look around the property and see if there?s a moat!"
Some of my private ruminations were that these same people did not make fun of the lady?s penchant
for keeping other things. Two boxes of empty coffee cans, dated from the 30?s and 40?s and still in
excellent shape, were coveted by every antique and collectibles dealer there. Same for the jars of
buttons, the toys, the Christmas ornaments, and nearly everything else including the hand made rag rugs.
The fact is, I couldn?t join in the laughter because I knew the lady,named Anna, if I remember
correctly, had been as sane as anybody there even though I had never met her. I also knew why she
had lived the way she did. I am both blessed and cursed with an excellent memory and I?m also old
enough to remember growing up in the years post W.W. II. In today?s parlance I?m a "baby
boomer", part of the first wave of that post-war rush to procreate. The street where I first learned to
ride a bicycle along the cracked sidewalks had a mixture of residents of varying ages, but there were
quite a few young couples whose children all became fast friends and playmates. We kids knew
nearly everyone on the street, and we were completely familiar with the day to day common events
and practices of the households we frequently spent time at.
I can look back in memory and clearly see the walk-in pantrys, the kitchens, the shelves and jelly
cupboards in the cellars, the pickle crocks, the wine bottles, and the contents of each. If the people I
knew in the fifties and sixties had read a recommendation from the government about having a
week?s worth of supplies on hand, they would have scowled and said,"Only a week? What
nonsense are they talking about?". Nearly everyone had a few weeks of food in their homes, or much
more depending on the season of the year. In the autumn, canning jars filled with garden produce and
fruit bought by the bushel overflowed the cellar shelves and were lined up on tables. Pressure-canned
jars of stew meat made a dark contrast to the picalilly, corn relish and chili sauce. It wasn?t only
home canned goods which were stored, either. Store bought items shared space on the shelves.
When canned pears or beans or flour were on sale at the grocery store,you picked up one for use,
and one or two or a dozen more to "put away", according to your financial ability and the size of your
family. After all, didn?t everybody? Prices only go up, you save those pennies where you can! There
were rules of common sense practically pounded into our youthful heads in those days, by people
who had lived through a ten year depression and subsequent world war.You absolutely "put something away for a rainy day" and if you wanted something new you saved up for it and paid cash. The only exception was maybe the item
was a big ticket one like a refrigerator
or a car and then you put as big a down payment on it as you could and worked to pay the loan off
fast. Debt was to be avoided like the plague and if you couldn?t afford something you did without it ?
no shame in that! And heaven forbid if you didn?t keep at least a little cash on hand at all times, if it
was within your means to do so. A garden was standard and if you grew more than you could use
then you gave some to old Mrs. Gartner down the street whose rheumatism kept her from tending to
a garden that year. (Then she sent you homemade fruit-filled cookies!)Or you put the extra out on a
table by the street and sold it cheap to families who couldn?t garden for themselves. As for the kids,
you did your chores, and got nasty looks from your elders if you were impolite or otherwise engaged
in a nefarious deed. If it took as long as two days before your parents heard about the error of your
ways, the grapevine was considered to have had a major lapse. The older kids sometimes tried
beating the inevitable disclosure by confessing to the deed and hoping punishment would be mitigated
by their honesty (and also because it was a point in a parent?s favor if they already knew what had
happened before another adult told them).
I recently met a lady friend for lunch and she asked me if I?d been to a Wegman?s supermarket
lately. I hadn?t, and she told me she knew several people who went to that store?s a la carte salad
bar three or four times a week after work. They picked up what appealed to them for dinner that
night and took it home. She said the profusion of food which could be bought, pre-cooked, and by
individual servings (or more) was now amazing. The original salad bar had expanded to include such
variety a person didn?t have to keep any groceries at home at all!
Before the above paragraphs make me sound as though I?ve somehow lived outside of modern
society, let me hasten to assure you that I?m very familiar with Sam?s Club as well as other national
supermarket chains, and there?s nothing I like better than eating out and not having to cook. Bring on
the bacon cheeseburgers and french fries! And although my youngest son used to refer to my early
days as "the stone age", it should be remembered that forty years is considered only one generation
by genealogists, and is really a very short time frame in the scheme of history. Honest! Also, like
those in any younger generation, I really didn?t pay all that much attention to my elders oft spouted
wisdom and consequently have experienced being in debt up to my eyeballs. Neither do I claim "the
good old days" were somehow removed from all the modern problems. They weren?t. Greed, crime,
wars and "conflicts", injustice, poverty, prejudice and ignorance were as insidious then as they have
been throughout history.
However, the conversation about picking up pre-made salad bar dinners most of the week did bring
together several random observations of mine and I realized it is not only American manufacturing
which now operates on the "Just In Time" principle. American society as a whole is now a J.I.T.
society; meal to meal, day to day, paycheck to paycheck. There is no underlying girder of stored
supplies to cushion an unexpected downturn in fortunes and whether this opinion now qualifies me as
an "old fogy" or not, neither is there as much of an underlying base of thrift, courtesy, faith or honor.
If Anna, whose property was auctioned that day, was still alive, and I had the opportunity to tell her
about the potential computer system problems the Year 2000 might bring,I know in my heart she
would most likely say, "Well, I got through ten years of depression and then W.W.II., you just do the
best you can. So what did you say the government is recommending in the way of supplies? Three
days to a week? Humph. [a sound always accompanied by a sniff or snort from the nose] If I ever
had just one week?s worth of supplies I would have considered myself to be an idiot, even in good
times. The gov?mint don?t remember too well, do they now?"
"No, they don?t," I?d reply. Read one of the free government brochures or talk to any financial
planner and you will invariably come across a recommendation that a family should have enough
money saved up to cover three months worth of expenses in case of an emergency such as a
hospitalization, layoff, or job loss. I?ve also read that same advice in various magazines articles and
newspapers for the last 30 years. Three months, on average, is the standard "cushion" recommended
to get you through the emergencies life may throw your way. Hardly anyone puts that advice into
practice nowadays, but it?s still considered a practical precaution.Until now that is. Now the
government is talking about three day?s or a week?s supply for an event the severity of which even
they admit cannot be definitively determined in advance. Yes, one is food in the house and the other
is money in the bank, but what difference does it really make?
Anna would "humph" and do that little side-to-side shake of the head,which is the old-time polite
way of saying "Some people?s just fools, ain?t they?" I?d give a younger, less practiced "hum" and
listen as she related all the hard times she?d been through and what she?d learned from them. I?d add
some of my own experiences. I know what it?s like to cook everything from scratch and make every
penny count. What it?s like to have one trip a month to McDonald?s be a big family treat. (Was I
glad I knew you could cook everything yourself and save money.) There was a time my husband and
I were in a car accident which put us both in the hospital. (Thank heavens there was plenty of food in
the house for the kids, because I?d learned from those earlier days of lean times how important that
was. The medical expenses not covered by insurance threw us for a loop that time, though.) Years
later, I discovered what it?s like when your husband has a heart attack and is out of work for three
months. (Thank God we had that recommended savings "cushion",( a lesson learned after that car
accident.) The disability payments didn?t come through until after he was back at work - forms
returned three times for various "verifications", you know. The Human Resources people for my
husband?s employer reassured us this was fairly "standard" procedure.
Then there was the time when my husband?s records were deleted from a military payroll database,
along with all the other soldiers whose last names began with A through C, followed by another glitch
a few months later which caused us to be paid a different amount than what was due, and then to
have a deduction made from our account which was more than the initial payment error. We learned
to never assume a direct deposit will always arrive at your bank when it?s supposed to, or that the
amount will always be accurate. These were only a few of many personal lessons which also taught
us never to fully trust in computer system accuracy or to believe that computing errors would be
remedied in short order. (It took almost two weeks to discover why those A to C deposits had never
been made and another month before the situation was remedied; longer to correct the later glitches.)
I won?t even detail a three year controversy with the I.R.S. over a $300.00 payment which we made
but which they claimed we did not make. I still have the two cancelled checks - one for the original
payment and one for the payment we finally made to get them off our backs since a cancelled check
didn?t seem to be enough proof for them that they?d gotten their money the first time around.
So many other rough times, with the learning piling up higher with each one and the joy of life growing
brighter, too. If we?d paid closer attention to all the bits of wisdom put forth by experienced elders in
our youth, we wouldn?t have had to learn the lessons bit by bit, one increment after another, the hard
way. Can you see Anna nodding her head while I related my stories? Can you hear her saying,
"That?s the way of the world, child. The young always thinkin? it?s going to be different for them, and
the old tryin? their best to save them some grief even when they?re mostly ignored."
So vivid are some of those earlier memories that it often seems strange to me that I am now a
grandmother myself. Strange that I am in the position of recalling past lessons and experiences in the
hopes of benefiting my children and grandchildren. Strange that now I have reached the stage of life
where I recognize first-hand the hard won wisdom of my own parents,grandparents, and other
elders who have graced my life. I am confronted by the same desire to teach those of shorter
memories that being prepared for life?s disasters, big or small, is a GOOD thing. And I am old
enough to know that most will not listen, and cantankerously aged enough to keep trying anyway.
I recently watched an episode of "The Century - America?s Time" on the History Channel. The
episode covered the Great Depression of the thirties. One particularly striking quote from a man who
had lived through that era was, "Everybody was baffled. They?d never experienced this before." Yet
the depression of the 1930?s was far from the first serious economic downturn in America or the
world. It doesn?t take long to forget, does it? Many in our society now seem to be of the opinion that
somehow, for the first time in history, America has some solution which will prevent a stock market
crash, rising unemployment, nasty explosions of wars, or what have you,and continued prosperity is
guaranteed; not to worry. So there will be a global computer problem we?ve never experienced
before? Not to worry, it?s under control. So the nation is still in debt up to it?s ears? We just had one
year where we didn?t add anything to that debt, didn?t we? Ok, so we didn?t decrease the national
debt, we just didn?t make it any bigger. Still not to worry.
The old matrons and gentlemen I grew up knowing had likely never heard of Santayana?s quote
about being condemned to repeat history if we don?t learn from it, but they surely knew from
experience the essence of his cautioning statement. One gent would have expressed it on a more
personal level, but the meaning is much the same. "Soon?s you think life is going along great, watch
out for the curve ball. And then be glad it was just a curve and you didn?t get hit in the head by a wild
pitch." Another elderly lady would have said, "There?s talk about seeing a glass either half full or half
empty. Posh, that glass is different levels at different times, ain?t never going to stay full, ain?t never
going to stay empty, and sure as shootin? ain?t goin to stay in the middle long neither. You got to
expect ups and downs and be as ready as you can for the bad times. Then the good times is even better."
Most of the experienced elders I grew up knowing are gone now, but a few weeks ago I was
delighted to discover the old wisdom is still alive and well. I was at WalMart, next to a display of oil
lamps, and encountered a little lady who appeared to be somewhere in her seventies and spoke with
a European accent. She was having a bit of trouble figuring out the difference between regular lamp
oil and the ultra-pure. I was able to answer a couple of questions for her and she related that it had
been a long time since she?d used an oil lamp. She asked me if I had any myself, and I told her I did.
She looked up at me and said, "Y2K?" That was the start of a chat between us which must have
gone on for half an hour. She related that she already had had a wood stove and lots of food supplies
when she first heard about a possible computer problem, but that she was expanding her normal
preparedness. After telling me this, she gave that little disdainful frown I?ve seen on many wrinkled
faces of days past and said that her oldest son kept telling her there wasn?t going to be any problems
with the computers come 2000. Then a confident light lit up her eyes and she raised her hand, index
finger extended, as though she was showing me how she had replied to him. Shaking that finger at the
invisible son, she said, "I told him, who knows? So maybe nozing happens, maybe it does. Always
better to be prepared. Zis I KNOW!" When this feisty little lady said,"Zis I know," the depth of her
conviction resonated in her voice.
Y2K or no Y2K, it is not "fear mongering" to warn that good times and prosperity do not go on
forever. It is not advocating "hoarding" to advise having more than one week?s supplies on hand, it is
not foolhardy to recommend reducing or eliminating debt, it is not "scare tactics" to point out that
modern economies are not depression-proof, it is not blasphemous to acknowledge the stock market
is still as susceptible to a downward plunge as it has always been, and it is neither silly nor crazy to
take seriously any global problem which has the potential to cause harm for a great many. If the
government, the media, businessmen, your boss or your neighbor tell you otherwise, they are the
ones with the short memories, and they are the ones who are wrong.
Anna would know that. Mabel, Maisie, Gert, Vera, Friendly, Reta, and all the other wise old ladies
of the past, whose wisdom, common sense, and good advice I have learned to trust, would know it,
too. Depending on individual personalities, their accompanying comments to accusations of
"hoarding" or "fear mongering" would have been variously, "Balderdash","Humbug", "Fiddlesticks",
or "Damn nonsense." Dear ladies, my "Humph" sound is only at the amateur stage now and although
it?s not as good as those I remember you all using whenever an apparent idiocy was encountered,
I?m working on making it better. You taught me well. Thank you. One week?s supplies?Bosh and poppycock.
-- Bonnie Camp |
