Thinking Outloud - February 2015

Lately, as I am trying to downsize on the amount of "just stuff" that I have acquired in my sixty eight years; I have been giving a lot of thought to how all we humans acquire our habits from our parents and the way they were reared.

Ms Alberta was born in 1926; she turned three the year The Great Depression started. This meant that during her formative years she saw soup kitchens and rationing of foodstuffs, such as sugar, flour, butter.

Ms Alberta watched and learned from her mother how to stretch food, how to sew clothes to wear, and how to hold on to things; because you never knew when that extra bolt or whatever would be needed.

So, when Ms Alberta started raising her own family she passed these values on to her children - my brother, Dan, my sister, Jean and of course me, Alberta Ann.

I can remember being told not to waste food, there were children in other countries as well as our own who went to bed hungry because they didn't have enough food.

I also remember being told to hold on to what was considered extra things because someday we might need them.

That last memory is why I had the nick name of Pack Rat Annie given to me by my children. I hold on to almost everything.

That having been said, guess who my children and my grandchildren come to when they can't find a part, a pattern, or something special to use on a project?

Yep - Pack Rat Annie's storage and salvage! Maybe I shouldn't be sitting here thinking about getting rid of all this good "stuff".

Picture Ardith Faye Shoupe 1945

This is a picture of my beautiful Aunt Ardith Faye Shoupe. It was taken in 1945 at Lowell, KY.

Aunt Faye will turn 83 May of 2015.