My parents grew up during the Great Depression and both trained their eight children in thrift.
All eight of us add water to the last bits of liquid laundry detergent to use the soap on the inside of the bottle. We save tiny bits of leftovers and throw them in whatever we are eating the next day. And yes, we all cut the end of the hand lotion off and use the bits that are stuck in the tube.
Our father resisted some modern changes and used a cloth napkin at all his meals.
“Why create more waste?”
When we emptied our parents’ house of sixty years, we found a whole drawer dedicated to our father’s linen napkins. I grabbed four.
COVID came. Quarantine inspired hoarding and made paper products scarce.
I opened a small drawer in my dining room and took out the four neatly ironed linen napkins. I shook them out and shook our habits up. Homage to a thrifty man, a gesture to other times, and four less paper napkins per meal.
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