I’ve spent most of the week at my father’s house. He’s so damn lost without mom. Been cooking, cleaning, fixing, painting, and since he can’t drive at night I drive him to the rehab-center where we spend about three hours with mom trying to cheer her up. It’s been hectic, but satisfying that we can be of service. (I have greatly enjoyed the shitfest in llpoh’s article!)
So, one day I bring home .. from dad’s house … a small trash bag to throw away. Ms Freud asks “Why?”. I tell her my parents do not have a garbage disposal service. “What??”. Yeah, that’s right. For decades … as long as I can remember, actually … my parents have been the Masters of Recycling.
EVERYTHING get recycled …. at least 97.475%. ALL metals, glass, plastic, and paper. There is ZERO food thrown away … peelings, pits, seeds, bones, …. whatever, all gets buried in a compost pile. My parents literally produce one small garbage bag the size of an office wastepaper container per month. I still don’t fully understand it, but they do it. They don’t even throw away water from the kitchen sink!! When the container needs to be changed, the old water is dumped in the yard to water the plants. “Why waste good water down the sink when the flowers need it!” I think they even recycle used toilet paper when I’m not looking.
And they re-use everything over and over. Baggies are washed and reused for about a year. lol Mom can make a roll of Aluminum Foil last half a year … she’ll just wash it down with a soapy sponge, dry it, fold it, and reuse it another 20 times. They haven’t bought a storage container (glass jar, plastic tupperware, etc) since 1963 … we get all the containers we need from the food we buy. Mom seems to like pickle jars the best cuz the glass is usually thick and that removable lid lasts forever. When my mom and dad were in better health they had a “One Mile Rule” …. generally any trip under one mile meant we left the car in the driveway and we … GASP!! …walked. So, even into her early 50’s my mom would walk to and from the grocery (to my great embarrassment) store pulling one of these;
My parents aren’t libtards. They are quite conservative. They aren’t tree-hugger save-the-whales types either. They are simply incredibly good stewards of what the earth brings forth. Everything to them is a gift and to squander it, especially by using it only once, is a Mortal Sin that will doom you to hell. I can’t imagine what America would look like if 300 million people lived like that. Can you? I’m no longer embarrassed. I am so proud of them.
How cool is this??!! I can combine my recycling story with a music video!! I know how much you love my taste in music. This is simply amazing, dontchya think???
Stucky, I had to laugh. We live this way at the farm, too. No such thing as garbage pick-up out here. Everything is composted, recycled, re-used (esp. tin foil, Ziploc bags and plastic containers) or used to start fires in the wood-burning furnace. Water is always used to water the plants or, if it’s boiling, kill weeds on the driveway. The only thing I take to Chicago to put in the trash are aerosol cans from the cooking spray my mother uses… and that’s just 1-2 per year.
All part of being “off-grid” I guess. Or maybe it’s a German thing.
I think this is awesome, so many believe our resources are infinite, and it doesn’t really take much more effort, we are mostly a lazy slovenly bunch. Rather than control what we spend by controlling what we waste, we protest for higher wages, so we can purchase more to throw away.
I’m in my early 60s and routinely walk to the grocery store pulling one of the carts Stuck features here..in fine weather. In this weather, I do it on the bus. It’s about a mile to the Aldi’s.
But I don’t kill myself. I go to the mainstream grocery store and have heavy stuff like cat litter and detergent delivered once a month or so. At $7-$10 a delivery, it is MUCH cheaper than car ownership. Even if I got the car given to me as a tax-free gift, there’s no place to park around here for less than $100 a month.
Stuck’s parents give me something to reach for in my repurposing-recycling efforts.
Great stuff Stuck. I hope your mom is getting better. Tragedy is sometimes a good thing if it brings families together. The only time I see all my relatives anymore is when somebody dies.
If I remember correctly, you’re parents grew up and/or lived through the depression. They learned those skills out of necessity, and it would be good to learn them now as a colossal depression is headed our way. Your parents didn’t rely on the government to solve their problems. It’s heartening to see and hear about your parents. They could teach us all something.
Wow, they make my old (“insane” by my friends/family standards) habits look positively slovenly.
We ‘murkins could learn a thing, or a thousand, from people such as your parents Stuck.
I am so jealous and impressed. Imagine that, someone jealous of frugality and thrift, instead of things and pricetags.
Hugs and kisses to you and yours big guy. Thanks for giving something to really think about and aspire to.
Very glad to hear Mom is doing fine as can be expected.
there was a cuac woman pushing her mom in a wheelchair, old black dude says to mom, “she think she’s taking care of you when really, you are taking care of her”. Mom just smiled.
Stucky, that’s pretty cool, in a weird sort of way. Everyone has or should have a hobby or two. Your parent’s hobby is being cheap. It is clear that they have spent a lot of time and energy to develop a system to render them cheaper than 99.99% of the inhabitants of this country. They should receive an award.
Very nice comments. Thank you. (And not one slam about the Junk Yard Orchestra! … lol)
AWD, my dad is 92, mom is 82. So, they were of the Depression Era. But we came to the USA in the late 50’s. Mom lived in a tiny Yugoslavian village, dad in a poverty-riddled Romanian village. These people had little-to-nothing, so they wasted absolutely nothing. Obviously, this greatly shaped their values.
The generations in America post WWII simply don’t know the meaning of ‘scarcity’ or ‘deprivation’. Even those in poverty have; 1) running water, 2) heat, 3) electricity, 4) indoor toilets, 5) food …. not to mention plasma TV’s, cell phones, computers, and nice cars. What “poverty”?? Most of these items were considered pure luxury in my parent’s day … and likely your parents as well. It’s all relative, is it not?
But, scarcity an deprivation will be knocking on America’s door soon enough. How will people handle it? Most assume there will be bloodshed. The unprepared may very well die.
Well … off to shovel our driveway, and dad’s. Looks like the Weatherman was right this time. That rat bastard.
My parents put food scraps in an ice cream bucket. Mostly waste fruit veggies egg shells and coffee grounds. It was put into the garden and spaded in. I have started to do the same much to my wife chagrin.
Super Cool.
*your parents are ….Super Cool and a reminder of what a wasteful society (me included) we have become.
Stucky says:
“And not one slam about the Junk Yard Orchestra!”
Dr. Pangloss said we are all just gathering coconuts. There are many communities abroad that survive on the trash of others. I have also seen the resourcefulness of prisoners in America. I asked my recruiter about Edwards AFB, he said, “it’s what you make of it.” Life is the same way.
What I hate is that there is a limit to what I can recycle or repurpose without becoming one of the people you see on HOARDERS. I like an uncluttered environment, but when you start saving every plastic jug or grocery bag, every piece of foil, and every reusable plastic container or glass jar, your house will start looking like one of those places.
I view that show online every now and then just to frighten myself into doing regular purges, not making impulse purchases, and putting the brakes on doing stuff like saving those damned 1-gallon plastic milk jugs to put emergency water supplies in. I am forcing myself to bundle up all the sweaters with holes worn in the elbows and put them in the Gia donation box around the corner because I just do not have room to save them, will never get around to darning them, and will not wear them in public. Next will be clothes that are good but are just too out of style and/or don’t fit anymore.
I really wish we had containers you paid, say, a 25 cent deposit on that got returned to you when you returned the container, like the glass soda and milk bottles of yore. It is very creepy to visualize what every food and cosmetic container I have have used in my lifetime would look like if they were all bundled together, and it’s even creepier to realize that they may still exist in an island of plastic floating in the ocean somewhere.
[img]http://slumz.boxden.com/f610/rewind-lemmings-jumping-off-cliffs-1920094/[/img]
That is awesome. Disposable everything…another cog in the infinite growth wheel. Then again, George Carlin might have got it right: Why are we here?? Plastic assholes!!! The earth needed plastic…
Just happened across this. Hope all is well with your family. ” I can’t imagine what America would look like if 300 million people lived like that. Can you? I’m no longer embarrassed. I am so proud of them.”
Right on! I’m passed middle age and am slowly trying to adapt my family to a similar lifestyle. It’s not easy. A couple things helped persuade the wife and 21 yr old son to adapt a bit.
For my son it was the lower element in the electric water heater going out. We use an outdoor wood boiler that provides residential heating and a pre-heated supply of water to the electric water heater.
Without a fire, he had 7 min to get his shower and be done or shower cold. LOL It wasn’t too difficult to persuade him to help me with the next load of firewood to cut and haul. Also dropped the electric bill by 30-40 dollars a month. (No way I’m replacing that element hehe)
Then when he reluctantly helped me gather, sort, separate, and haul all the metal I had collected over the past yr to the scrapyard he got a real surprise. “$340 dollars for that?, all my energy drink cans and soda cans, junk, and used batteries? he asked. “Yup”, I replied as I Handed him a $100. “If its metal, its not only recyclable, but worth money too.”
Now the Video… Makes you very thankful for what you have. It also shows some phenomenal people who can recycle trash in to wonderful instruments that actually play nearly as well as instruments costing 1000’s. Incredible people I love it . great stuff!
For the wife