Reusing and recycling was part of daily life
I am sure my parents and grandparents were not environmentally conscious but, then, very little of what they did had adverse effects on the environment.
In our current mantra of “reduce, reuse and recycle,” I like to replace the word “reduce” with “refuse” in that we need to refuse to buy items with excessive packaging, items used once only and items that cannot be recycled.
Recycling, a very costly procedure is the last step, not the first.
Our forefathers bought items that lasted for generations. When the item had ended its first life they went out of out of their way to use it in a different way, to make it into something new or to combine it with another item to create a new machine, tool or object.
Saving items for reuse was not only frugal, but the non abundance of capitol and new resources made this a necessity.
Some of Dad’s modified items from the farm are still part of my life. However, the ones used around the house by my mom (of which I am in awe) are treasured memories of her life. Whether it was fabrics, cloth or sacks, Mom had a use for every used cloth scrap she was given or had purchased.
She made hundreds of patch work quilts, table coverings, door mats, dog blankets, pillow cases, dish towels, pot holders, napkins and handkerchiefs. She reused flour and sugar sacks. She was given loads of fabric scraps from family dressmakers and she used clothes that had worn out knees or sleeves.
Old hotel bed sheets that were still good around the edges were always welcomed.
Cloth was not the only part of old clothes and linens that was reused. The hems of larger items were cut off and used to tie up parcels or used as ribbons.
Buttons were always salvaged until a collection became large enough to find sets of buttons that could be used on new projects. String that sewed cloth flour and sugar sacks was always rolled into a ball and used for a myriad of purposes.
My grandmother even crocheted beautiful table runners with this free string. Clothes repair was a weekly chore around our house. Hand-me-down clothes were altered to fit the next person. Knee and elbow parts were reinforced and socks were darned on a regular basis. Flour and sugar sacks were dyed and had crocheted and needle work applied to become fancy items. Small scraps left over from quilting projects became squares for throw rugs and the smaller scraps from the throw rugs became squares for pillows. The end stage in a cloth’s life was being used as a rag.
Living in a rural area, there was no garage pick up services until the nineties. In fact, use of the word “garbage” was practically non-existent. Everything had a place to go, but not in the garbage.
Fruit and vegetable scraps were dumped into a low spot behind our house. Garden trimmings were added to the top and everything was left to rot. Each year volunteer potatoes would emerge from this pile and were always the ones in the best condition.
The new soil here did not carry the plethora of bugs and diseases found in our farm fields.
Bones and meat scraps were always boiled up into sodium stock before being fed to our dog. The dog was a working part of the farm. His job was herding cattle and guarding our outbuildings. Flyers and junk mail was almost non-existent in rural delivery areas, and so what little paper we did receive was used to start the fires in our wood burning furnaces. Used catalogs became paper for use in the outhouse, a staple farm item when away from the house.
Plastic products were expensive and rarely used. Sandwiches could easily be wrapped in a cloth that was also used as a place mat and serviette.
Lunches were packed in used lard pails that had a tight fitting lid that kept freshness in. The few plastic bags around the house were washed in the regular weekly wash cycle and used until they fell apart. Twist ties were reused, even when they were just thin wires with no paper left on them.
Having our own source of meat meant never having styrofoam trays for disposing. Tinfoil containers were very scarce, as most of the baking was home based and ready-toeat dinners were not part of our life. Cookies, received as gifts always came in tin boxes.
These boxes were reused for sewing supplies, food storage, shoe polishing kits, hardware supplies and games storage. Glass bottles were reused instead of “Tupperware” type containers.
Drinks for lunches were put in jars and slipped into a thick sock to keep it hot or cold. Jars that had a reusable seal were used for canning pickles, fruit and tomato sauce. Tins, that contained food products, became nail, screw and small parts storage containers. Stools, benches and tables were fashioned using a few, simple hand tools.
Even the stubs of pencils, less than two inches long had a special use. Dad could easily carry these stubs in his pocket without injury. Dry cell batteries existed in very few, if any, products so their disposal was not an issue.
Most meals and food items were homemade. Although they were not always made from scratch, quite often they were made from something prepared earlier.
Left-over cake or cookies were refashioned into puddings and tortes.
Stale bread was broken up and dipped into a glass of sugar water for an afternoon treat of “l’aqua bona”.
The last scraps of bread dough, from the weekly bread making, were fried up in left over bacon fat from breakfast.
Soup, a staple evening meal, was made using the bones and meat scraps from previous meals. Similarly, pasta sauces and meat loaves were made with ingredients from previous meals. Ravioli was crafted by slowly cooking tough cuts of meat and grinding them up with leafy vegetables. No part of a slaughtered animal was overlooked. Food was never thrown or wasted — it always had another use.
All of these reuse activities, piled together, almost seem daunting. But, when done on a daily basis, as part of my Grandmother or Mother’s daily routine, it seemed very natural.
Even though many of these resources are plentiful in today’s world, it is still very difficult for me to justify purchasing new ones when the reused one is just as useful.
Does it not seem oxymoronic to buy new plastic bags for garbage or recycled items?
This article is part of a series, submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Historical Society.