It was no fun being poor during the Great Depression. I learned to "make do." That meant being a saver, but not a hoarder. There is a difference. A saver might have a need to an item in the future. A hoarder just kept an item rather than throw it away. Dented pots and pans, a wash tub with a hole in it or a broken leg on a stool, etc. That's hoarding in my book.

Saving is another matter. That worn out pair of jeans or old dress contain a wealth of patching materials. Those old lace curtains could be used to strain fruit for jelly. Lord knows, I can't afford cheesecloth. Wait a minute! That wash tub could be saved as well. A rivet in that tiny hole would make it watertight again.

I remember when I saved glass jars that could be filled with a canning lid. I usually checked the lid on any prospective purchase. A few weeks after Memorial Day at the end of May I would check the local cemeteries for discarded canning that had been used to hold flowers on grave sites.

They don't make lard buckets anymore. I would wash and dry mine for containers for nails and screws in the barn. They made good canisters as well.

Old dresses and flowered feed sacks had the makings for patchwork quilts for the winter. I even reworked old quilts to make them serviceable again for our beds.

Let's talk about string. Every depression era housewife had a ball of string. No cellophane tape? Tie it up with a piece of string. Makes good shoe strings in an emergency as well.

Do you get the idea? Old habits die hard. I still don't throw away anything that I might have a use for.