I was thinking about all of the little sayings my parents and grandparents had to teach us how to be good stewards of our family's resources. Many of these lessons I carry with me today. How many of these did your parents or grandparents used to say? What other little sayings did they have?
Here are the top 10 that I remember from my childhood:
"Put a sweater on if you're cold." Save energy. Be prudent with resources.
"Clean your plate." This extended to using every bit in a tube of toothpaste, scraping out the mayonnaise jar, using that last square of TP stuck onto the cardboard tube. The lesson was to don't be wasteful.
"Let me show you how we can fix this." From worn shoes and torn jeans, to pilled sweaters, we repaired (or took to a repair shop) our worn or torn clothing. Shoe repair shops used to be common. Of course, the types of shoes people used to wear daily often had leather soles, which can be replaced, in contrast to sneaker rubber soles. When I was first allowed to wear blue jeans to school (7th grade), I fell in my practically brand new jeans and tore the knee. My mom took me to the nearby 5 and dime (yes, there was still a 5 and dime back in my town in the 70s, although everything cost way more than 5 or 10 cents). We looked at the sewing notions on the wall and found a large patch of an orange. It wasn't how I really wanted my jeans to look, but I had to compromise. A large orange on the right knee of my jeans was better than not being able to wear my jeans to school. It was my mother who showed my sister and I how to shave pills off sweaters using a ladies non-electric razor. We extended the attractiveness of many sweaters by shaving off pills.
"Go in or go out. Don't just stand there with the door open." I still use this one with my own family members. It's closely related to "decide what you want from the fridge before you open the door." All about saving energy. No need to heat or cool the outdoors.
"A stitch in time saves nine." I didn't understand this one for a long time. It was finally explained to me that if we repair something early enough, we won't have a big repair later. Very true about clothing repairs. That hem that is falling down on a favorite skirt? Fix the hem now and you won't have a big repair later. Ditto on torn seams or small holes in knits.
"Money doesn't grow on trees" or "I'm not made of money." We heard both of these often from my father. Our provisions are finite. Don't waste what we have and don't ask for what we don't really need.
"Money won't buy happiness," which is closely related to "no one ever promised life would be fair." And also "there's always someone who has it worse." Be grateful for what you have, find joy in the simple, and appreciate every good thing.
"Save it for a rainy day." Put something aside for hard times to come.
"Your eyes are bigger than your stomach." Don't take more than you need or can use, in food or other things.
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Sometimes you can do more of the same, then have success. But other times, you need a new angle of attack. Either way, you have a chance at success if you keep trying. Whereas you will surely fail if you give up.
I hope some of these brought back fond memories for you.
While these are very familiar sayings, I don't remember my parents saying them much. One of the things that was emphasized many times when I was growing up was education. We were told that we didn't have to go to college, but we should have enough education to get a job to support a family because you never know what will happen.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteMy father had a saying for something close to that -- "have a back-up plan." When one of my daughters wanted to pursue acting (and she still is), we (her parents) strongly suggested she also get a teaching certificate/education degree on top of a degree in theater. She's been able to use her certificate to sub teach at a higher rate of pay than if she didn't have it. Teaching is her back-up plan. And she uses it every week.
My parents were immigrants so I never heard these sayings but I heard similar ones and in a different language. They scraped to get by and nothing was thrown away. We sure didn't understand that then but we sure do now. And in light of parents dying and cleaning out their homes I see a lot of things to dispose of, sell, or give away and that hurts a lot because there was more than necessary. I look at my own home, overflowing with things that someone will have to deal with when I'm gone or I can take care of while living. My husband is fond of saying that life is unfair but God is always fair.
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteThat's interesting about the similar sayings but in your parents' primary language. I wonder how much of their sayings would be lost in translation, if translated literally.
I love what your husband says. That is a comfort.
I'm sorry for all of the work you and your siblings now have to do with your parents' home. It makes for good motivation to not leave too much work for our children to handle someday.
I found both L&L's and Alice's comments interesting. There are a lot of different paths that we take that lead to using our resources wisely. As for me, I heard many of these sayings (frequently!) while growing up, and reading them gave me a twinge of nostalgia. I've had to learn to not be so focused on cleaning my plate (or rather, to take smaller portions and then add more if I feel hungry) because that particular phrase can lead to overeating. I should ask my kids if I used these during their growing up years. I would usually condense the one about deciding whether you were going to be inside or outside to "in or out" (for the front/back doors) or "open or closed" (for the refrigerator). This was fun, Lili! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteThe cleaning your plate thing has been hard for me to break. I naturally eat everything put in front of me, even when I'm full, unless I deliberately try to quit. When we've eaten out, I will divide everything on my plate in half, push it to the side, and tell myself the other half is all I will eat for now. I understand why my parents would have had a policy like that with their children. They were both born during the Great Depression and lived through the hardship everyone else did during WW2.
I often just say "in or out," as a reminder to not stand with the door wide open. They know what I mean..