Barn recycled to garage
On the one nice day this week, I was lucky enough to be able to take it off and head up north, to my parents house in Bow. Business is uncomfortably slow right now but it did allow me to get some things done.
I was hanging outside with my dad for some therapeutic digging in the dirt. We planted strawberries. After we were done, we wandered around the property and he was telling me about what it was like when the previous owner had it. The farmer had a barn that he torn down after getting rid of his cows. With the scrap lumber he built by Dad’s garage. It’s this huge three sided building that is weathered grey and has housed all the fun treasures my dad brings home. I made a comment about how it is a “recycled” building – before it was cool to recycle. Our conversation drifted to how and why we got away from being practical and using old things before buying new. Farmers and people a few generations ago would reuse things over and over before getting something new. When they did buy something new, they put thought into it. One would consider cost, efficiency, and need. I asked what happened, why did people stop doing that? His thought was that it had to do with “hard times” such as the Great Depression. People didn’t want a reminder of how horrible it had been. If they got new they were different, more successful, further away from hardship.
I have been thinking about this since then. Not everyone did this, many people still didn’t waste anything after the Depression. They understood what it meant to have little or nothing so what they had was more precious. But there were people whom didn’t want to remember. If one had new things, it was better. There the world, or at least the US went – becoming a very wasteful country. If we forget history, then history will repeat itself. If we move away from our roots too far then we will lose valuable lessons. (This applies to me too. I’ve been wasteful like everyone else.)
Even if it is just the current fashion to be “green”, it isn’t bad. Fashions come and go, but after they have gone, some people are reminded of more practical things. Hopefully, our recession will teach us to go back to our roots, reuse things, don’t waste because you never know what is going to happen. If we listen maybe we’ll learn from other people’s mistakes before we make too many of our own. And if you get caught with a bad decision don’t moan and groan too much (of this I am guilty as well), learn from it and don’t repeat the mistake. Credit cards are a good example. We have used them too much. Though we are suffering a little we have not used them to “get ahead”. We will be better for it, though it makes today harder.
Recycling is not a new fad, but a rediscovered (often glorified) way of life. I don’t need expensive yarn all the time. Garage sale presents can be just as nice. Those hand-me-downs that no one likes as a kid are useful and more appreciated once those lessons learned. Sometimes, a girl needs her dad to remind her that roots aren’t always something to forget.
