By Velma M. Rose Smith

I was getting supper, frying hamburger patties, and it came to me, this is pure ground beef, like ground steak. How different a few years ago, when the family was home and money scarce, I stretched the hamburg with bread crumbs or cereal and eggs. The casseroles I “made up” to fill up and not cost much! It is a good thing we were a happy family, with the teasing and horseplay, they weren’t so conscious of what they were eating, I hope.

Another thing, I enjoy throwing away all the socks with holes in the heels. I hated mending all those socks, and everyone hated to wear them after I mended them. Now, when a big hold appears, whiz – in the waste basket. I still change collars on the shirts and mend the elbows, just haven’t got so I can throw a shirt away. I mended several of my aprons today, should be using them for dust cloths.

The grandchildren don’t like my telling them to take care of their toys, bicycles, balls etc, and when I get cross they say, “Oh yes, we have heard that when your kids were home, they had to bring all their toy in the house, and if they had lost something they had to stay out until they found it”. Maybe I was too strict about it, but at the time there was no money to replace even a ball. A lost jackknife was a tragedy, Wayne lost his knife on a path to the river at Blossburg, and we hunted and hunted for it. Jay lost his little billfold at the Park, with 35 cents in it, and we hunted for that, all of us and the Vaughn’s family, for 35 cents was a big amount during the depression.

Now I see little girls with dolls by the dozen, none of them as precious as Wanda’s Viola, that she got when she was 2 years old for Christmas, and kept her all her life. Eileen had a little broom, she carried it out from Bloss on her lap, when we moved here, it is a wonder it isn’t around somewhere with a ribbon bow on it. Jay would have protected his first bicycle with his life, I guess. He kept it either in his bedroom upstairs or in the dining room, winters.

So kids, that is why I shudder when I see dolls, dishes, tractors, cars, and bicycles thrown around the yard, abandoned to the elements. Not only is it wasting money, but you are loosing something more valuable, a caring for things, and “I am thinking” that it becoming a world attitude.