The Way We Were; When We Were A We

So, yesterday I am at work in a client's home..... why are you interrupting me with that puzzled look?

Well, yes, there are still people who work for a living. You don't? Well, then which Occupy protest do you call home?

Anyway, enough of my fantasy conversation with one of the dead beat protestors of today. My conversation with my client reminded me of what hard times really used to be like. This couple was old enough to remember food shortages in the 30's and 40's. "When we could get butter we had to add the color ourselves", she said, as he chimed in that "it wasn't even butter, margarine, or lard is more like it". She continued, "and we saved the wrapper from our stick of gum, foil, and roll them up in a ball for the war. They dropped them out of the planes", to confuse radar I supposed.

These were people who were alive during the dust bowl years. His father worked for the WPA. The WPA, the Work Progress Administration is what sparked the conversation as I had mentioned it in describing the cabin (seen on the home page and called the "Goat's Nest") where I had taken my Mother's ashes a few years back, it was built as a WPA project. The WPA was a solution to underemployment back when folks were used to real work, and people were grateful for any job they could get.

Our talk was in now way comprehensive of all the ways people survived, but we did cover things like how my Grandparents dealt with their trash without a landfill. What would burn went into a barrel, what could be composted went into the ground, and metal such as tin cans were opened on both ends, flattened and recycled for the metal.

I still have the gasoline ration books issued during the war. And, I will not pretend to offer a complete inventory of all the ways people scrimped, and found resourceful ways to get along during truly hard times. But, today's sufferings do not measure up to what folks went through last century.