A while back, I went on a cleaning spree and did a purge of a lot of stuff in the Little Bayou House. It appears that everyone and their brother seems to think I am the keeper of all things so they bring/send things here "for safe keeping". Nope. It obviously was not safe here because a lot wound up in the burn bin. I hear things like "I brought you Mama's recipes so I would not lose them." Or, "I want you to keep these old school books." Or worse yet, "Do you think you could keep this box of papers safe for me until I get a chance to look through them?" Nope, nope, NOPE!!! First...she ain't my mama! I do not need to safe keep her recipes because you may lose them. Second...school books??? You really want me to keep outdated school books? Third...go through your papers then you will not have to have a huge box! The purge kept up until I grew weary and stopped. It has begun again and is going on with a vengeance!
Going through some cookbooks today, I found a scrap of paper that had a recipe. This was in Mom's stuff so I wanted to check each paper. Who knows? I may just find a winner recipe in the mess! Well, not really. Mom had kept a recipe for a jello mold salad. That even sounds as nasty as it tasted back when I was a kid. Anything that has "mold" in the title sounds disgusting. (Yes, I realize it was referring to a pan (mold) since I have those but it still sounds nasty. As I was tossing the paper, I noticed the ads on the back! Oh, my! If only prices were still like this!
Immediately, I scanned the article for a date and found one in the smidgen of legal announcement at the top of the page. The paper was printed in 1965! While the legal tidbit may have been interesting, it was the grocery ad that caught my eye since...well, we eat..daily! Who would imagine paying a meager 29 cents per pound for spare ribs? Or getting 5 cans of soup for 59 cents?? My grocery budget would be cut dramatically! If we could go back in time to stock up on things, life would be easier.
The ad got me to looking at the backs of other recipes to see just what was on them. I spent far too much time sorting just one small shelf of cookbooks so I had to make myself promise to not get so sidetracked on the next binge cleaning. It takes far too long this way!
It seems that with technology that is supposed to save us oodles of time, there is actually less accomplished. Back when things were "simpler", folks got things done. Believe it or not, people actually did things! Now with everything at our fingertips, we are pushed to the limit to find enough hours in the day to do what we need to do. I do blame technology. It rots the mind. At least, it rots mine. A while back, Darling Daughter introduced me to a thing called "Pinterest"! It is amazing! You can find anything there! Pinterest is a social media application that allows you to find almost anything, save the idea (pinning) AND supposedly use that information. Sadly, most folks have become "pinners" and not doers. Hours upon hours are idled away staring at what other folks are doing. We are inspired! We have high hopes! We never "get around to it" so the fantastic ideas are "pinned" and ogled but never achieved. Like I said, the site is absolutely fantastic and I do not blame the creators of the site for our lackadaisical attitudes. We mean well but, by the time our brains are filled with great ideas, we are all too exhausted to carry out any of them. If you have been living in another world and have not heard of Pinterest, you really should check it out. It is wonderful but do not expect to ever have enough time.
This week, I have been doing another purge of items that are no longer used. Two large envelopes of paper clippings were dragged to the table to be sorted. Perhaps I should have just junked the things without opening but these were Mom's and Aunt Marie's recipes! It felt like sacrilege to toss them without at least looking at them first. Not only did the envelopes contain recipes but there were a bunch of "idea" clippings in there, as well. Crochet patterns, home decor information, gardening hints and a lot of interesting tidbits such as poems, sayings and pictures. These were all cut from newspapers or magazines and tucked away for safe keeping. These were the "Pinterest" of an earlier generation!
The whole point I am trying to make is that hours spent on "time-saving" technology has left us with little time to actually do things. With earlier generations, they saved the ideas (recipes, patterns, etc) but these were actually used. It is quite evident by the condition of each slip of paper, each pamphlet, each newspaper clipping that they were viewed often. Many had added instructions handwritten in the margins such as "add more vanilla" or remarks across the top if the recipe was "very tasty".
To be honest, I could not discard all of the items in the two envelopes. If there were duplicates or tattered pieces, I tossed. The others were put in the kitchen to use. Some of the recipes brought back memories and others sounded too good not to try. As I sat sorting the papers, I thought of Mom and Aunt Marie and their reaction to the whole idea of using the computer to find a good recipe. That thought was rather amusing. Oh, how times have changed....and some of it is not for the better. Now, excuse me. I have to search Pinterest for a pirate costume pattern!
