NEW THINGS

                                                                  
Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do, 
Or do without.
    --Depression Motto

During most of Jenny’s childhood, times were so hard that seldom was anything new bought until the old one was completely worn out, so that it was unsightly beyond repair or outgrown. Each new purchase was an event and a treat. Mother made coats and dresses for Margaret and Jenny from old ones she had worn during a more prosperous era. Underwear was made from flour sacks Only at Christmas did you get gifts from Santa that you might not need, but loved. Sometimes at Christmas gift exchanges or grab bags, a gift would show up that no one knew for certain how to use.

When the oilcloth that covered the kitchen table was worn down to the fabric backing, and was getting impossible to clean, it was time to get a new one. Oilcloth was kept on big rolls at the Variety Store and there might be several plain colors, bright checks or prints from which to choose. Mother would point to one and say,” I’d like to have two yards of that one, please.” The store clerk would unroll two yards and carefully cut it with a pair of big sharp scissors, making a loud scissor snipping sound, and roll it up and put it in a long paper bag. While sitting in the back seat on the way home from town, Margaret and Jenny would reach into the bag and feel the smooth new oilcloth and put their noses to its new, clean, “fresh from the store” smell. As soon as they got home, Margaret would yank off the old oilcloth. It was not discarded, but put by paint supplies to be used as a drop cloth if there were painting to be done. Next she would position the new oilcloth carefully on the old walnut table and they would admire it. Supper was always special on the night of the Saturday they went to town. There might be fried hamburger patties with piccalilli and the usual fried potatoes, and on rare occasions, small servings of chicken fried round steak.

Although Mother darned all holes in their winter stockings, to make them last as long as she could, they would sometimes need to get new ones for winter, brown or beige ribbed stockings to be held up by supporters attached to sleeveless shoulder supported waists. In spring it would be new bright or pastel anklets to be worn in spring and summer with white buckled Mary Janes.

A new flyswatter was pretty before it had to be used to swat flies. At the end of a long wire handle would be a square of silver screen, bound in bright cloth binding.

Mother decided that the best kitchen gadget to use for making fluffy white seven minute icing would be a rotary egg beater which was turned with a handle, rather than the old whisk. The new beater would also be handy for churning butter, whipping cream and whipping mashed potatoes. It was more fun for Margaret and Jenny to turn the handle than wear out their arms with the old whisk beater and they took turns “running” the beater.

After the old oval shaped copper wash boiler sprang leaks too large to be stopped by soldering, a shiny new one was purchased at Tillman’s Hardware Store. When they brought it into the house Jenny put a pillow in it and climbed in and made herself a cozy nest. When a milk pail had become so dented from numerous kickings from nervous milk cows, and wouldn’t sit level or began to leak, it would be replaced by a shiny new galvanized iron pail from Tillmans, as would the old black coal scuttle and shovel be replaced with shiny new ones when they became rusty.

One day Daddy found a brass bedstead at a community sale and he bought that along with a mattress and springs to replace the folding cot in the kitchen bedroom. The bedstead was gilded with gold paint that would rub off on your fingers like the gold on the front of a red and gold Big Chief tablet. The cot was brought to the kitchen and covered with a horsehide robe made from faithful old Daisy when she died of old age. It was covered with an Indian blanket and they tacked a big world map to the wainscotted wall above the cot. It had flags and pictures of the leaders of all of the countries in the world.

How pretty a bright new unused wooden spool of thread looked. New bars of soap had fancy letters of the brand names deeply incised in them. Mother would buy a bar of rough gray Lava soap for Daddy and the hired man to use to wash away machine grease and dirt from the fields. For the ladies she bought sweet scented Lux facial soap. These wrappers smelled so good that she would put them in the dresser drawers until the fragrance faded away.

The family was mystified and excited when a small lightweight package arrived in the mail
addressed to Margaret. In it was a wind-up celluloid doll that crept on its hands and knees after you gave the wind-up key a number of turns. It wore a white, ribbed romper suit. It was from an unknown sender and they wondered if there had been a mistake.

After Dad expanded his farming acreage by renting more land from various landlords, he bought a bright new red-painted, rubber-tired Farmall tractor from the implement company to use in place of the old Farmall that had sharp lugs that tore up the roads and the driveway and was becoming an antique. The new rubber-tired tractor was smoother riding and made the long hours of working the fields easier for him

The rare purchase of any new item, however humble, was always an event.