I have become a crusader for the causes of thrift and frugality. I have been guilty of preaching its virtues beyond the point when eyes glazed over. – Amy Dacyczyn, author of “The Tightwad Gazette.”
Americans put almost as much fossil fuel into our refrigerators as our cars – Barbara Kingsolver, author of “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”
Pulling these two books off the bookshelf I took them with me to the porch to spend some time with coffee and Wilhemina. A hummingbird visited first, zipped in and out. Then came the sweat bees. They don’t sting or bite, but they do annoy. It was terribly humid outside but beautiful also and I wanted to sit with Wilhemina. Ceiling fans are around all the porches except the front. Not to be undone I went inside, grabbed an extension cord and a small fan. Hooked them up and it worked just fine. I like to think that I’m a bit thrifty and frugal though nothing like the authors above. If I asked Sam would install a ceiling fan in a heartbeat but I don’t always need one. The little fan is just fine and it’s portable.
I’m not always frugal or thrifty but when I am I really enjoy my finds. The wooden bench where Wilhelmina is lounging came from Quirky Antiques in Columbus. The perfect find for our porch. I also found a sewing machine treadle at Quirky Antiques. Works perfect for pots of flowers beside the garage door when you need to sit something down in order to open the door. Reusing and recycling can be a lot of fun. Like finding a treasure. When I used to travel often, I would search thrift stores. In the Bahamas I lucked out finding beach clothing and souvenirs left behind by vacationers. It’s a treasure hunt.
In 1997 at the College World Series, I dropped into Omaha’s thrift store looking for tee shirts from prior years. Maybe I’d look like a regular attendee wearing a 1995 tee. Before I left the store, I received an alert from the credit card company wanting to verify if it was me buying my heirloom CWS tee shirts in Omaha.
Thrifting and recycling can be done anywhere, not necessarily on a trip. Barbara Kingsolver’s book and family had a different idea of thrift. They decided for the first year of the family project to “deliberately (eat) food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air. For the first year they would only buy food raised in their own rural neighborhood, grow it themselves or learn to live without it.” The family was way more adventurous than I could ever be. Just reading the Kingsolver’s project does make me wish I could do what they did. I like her quote “It is also noiseless in the garden, phoneless, meditative and beautiful. Nothing more therapeutic than to walk up there and disappear into the yellow-green smell of the tomato rows for an hour.” My only consolation would be this morning: I plucked four cherry tomatoes.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].
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