A Little Bit of My Dad

My dad grew up during the Great Depression.   Poverty, combined with having to support his divorced mother and his brother, had a profound effect on the rest of his life.  I remember him telling my brother and me about having to pick cotton and how the thorns would tear his hands apart.  How, when his house burned down, a teacher at his school took him in.  A life filled with challenges that I probably could never imagine.  

My mom didn't feel the Depression in her home.  A father who owed a very successful millinery establishment was the provider for his and his brother's families.  Her teenage years were relatively trouble free (not counting the "trouble" that five sisters and one brother could get into!)  

These two extremely different life experiences conflicted every so often.  Dad would save every single leftover.  Mom would never cook the leftovers, but when they went bad, she threw them out.  Mom would readily take clothing to Salvation Army; Dad would wear things until they were threadbare.  Dad would also SAVE EVERYTHING.  Every screw, every washer, every dime, every penny that he found in the street would not be discarded.  He'd bring home furniture he'd find by neighborhood trash cans and refinish or reupholster it.  He recycled newspaper before it became trendy (and he would insist that my brother take his wagon and collect newspapers from the neighbors as well).  His garage was filled with jars of nails and screws, piles of wood pieces, and tools hanging neatly on pegboard.  A place for everything and everything in its place.

When we moved to our home here, we packed up our garage (it looked very similar to my Dad's since I did marry a man very much like him!) and two crates that once sat in my father's garage sat in ours for the last 10 years.  After my husband built bookcases in our spare room, I was looking for something to fill some of the space that wasn't taken up by books.  I thought of those crates.

Well, they fit in the bookcase perfectly.  It's time to hit Pinterest and find some great ways to display them and make them useful.  It's nice to have something nearby too, that reminds me of my dad.