What we can learn from my Grandma and the women of Gee's Bend

Have you ever saved an empty bread bag for later use? Have you ever felt guilt when throwing away an aluminum disposable pie plate or a plastic milk jug? Have you ever eaten questionable food as opposed to simply throwing it away? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you were either raised during the depression or you are part of the new "Greenwave" that is crossing our country these days. But there is more than just the environment at stake for all of us, and the new "greenies" may not fully appreciate that fact, while my Grandmother could really care less about global warming as she tucks her breadbags away. She was reducing, reusing, and recycling before the three R's were cool. (Actually, in her day the three R's were Reading wRiting and 'Rithmatic, but that never made much sense...)

You see, the depression taught my grandparents and the people of that generation something. I realized today that people younger than me (close to 30) are not being exposed to the Depression style way of life. That is, my parents were raised by Depression era parents. I was impacted by Depression era grandparents. But my kids (if I ever have any) will not know their great-grandparents enough to understand this mindset of scrimping and saving.

My Grandparents learned as young children and teenagers that debt was a dangerous thing. If you didn't have a nest egg, in cash, you were at risk. They saved extra money, made their clothes last, walked to the theatre, and saved such things as bread bags for a second or third use.

But I was raised in the 80's, not the 20's and 30's. In the eighties, everything was about bigger and better. If you don't like what you've got, throw it away and get a new one. Oh, and don't bother fixing things. In fact, these days you can't get things fixed. You have no choice but tossing them. So we have been trained to borrow and spend and borrow some more and don't worry you will earn more later to pay the creditors back. Want a car, get one! Want a house, get one! Too small, get a bigger one! And so it goes, and so we are where we are economically today.

I heard an NPR story on the way in to work today about an economic bubble that burst in Japan that taught them the same lessons Americans learned in the Great Depression. I found it so profound as the man in the story talked about how everyone was in the "buy buy buy" mode...but it took 20 years for him to pay off that debt after the crash. And I thought to myself, how long will it take me to pay off my debt? My education, my home...I don't think 20 years will cover it! So what if we have a crash? It is enough to make me want to start stashing bread bags in a drawer.

So this brings me to the quilters of Gee's Bend. A couple of weekends ago, my mom and I went to see an exhibit of these quilts at the Knoxville Museum of Art. It was great. These are some cards I bought there which had the prints of some of the quilts on them. You see, the ladies of Gee's Bend would take what ever fabric they could get...old jeans and courderoy pants with the knees worn and that could not longer be used, or old shirts, sheets, anything that could be found. It would be patched together, mostly in a "log cabin" or "housetop" pattern. But the word "pattern" is used loosely, as you can see. Squares and strips is how they come out. All colors, with variations in the fabric from where knees had bent, pockets had been removed, creases had been made.

Batting was cotton lint that was leftover from processing of cotton in the cotton gin. The lint would be stretched and spread over the quilt back and then the top was added.

Then let the quilting begin. Women gathered around the quilting frame and stitched while they sang, told stories, and talked about all the things women talk about. Then, after a bit of finishing, the quilt was complete and ready for use. You see, this project was not a gift or a hobby, but it was the way that a woman would keep her husband or children warm on a winter night.

But the quilters of Gee's Bend knew about not wasting, not borrowing, but usually having just enough, or a little less than enough. Mostly about being happy. The video at the museum showed one of the matriarchs talking about this...she said that no matter how little they had they were happy, but that nowadays, no one seems happy.

And I guess we're not. Who can be happy when the world can crumble so easily. When retirement and investments can be lost, debt will take 20 years to pay, and cars run out of gas. But when you have nothing and no where to go, what is there to worry about? You can just sit with your family, stitching and singing and letting the world worry about itself.

So we have a lot to do. We need to be green to save the planet, we need to save money and get out of debt. But mostly, we need to love each other and worry more about the next stitch than the next dollar.