In the Beginning....

I was born in South Carolina in the mid 1950's.  My father passed away when I was very young, and I was raised by my mother.  My ADOPTIVE mother.  So, you see, I was sort of like a human pound puppy.  My mother (mama) was a strong woman - she could make a sailor blush, and was considered mean spirited, some might say.  She had a hard life - lived through the depression and all that went with it.  Because of this poor childhood she had, my mother taught me many valuable things......like how to save all the old buttons one could possibly ever want....I have buttons that I don't even have the clothes for any more!  (you never know when you might need a button).  She also kept all the bread ties after the bread was gone.  There were different colored wire ties for different days of the week and she knew ALL the colors.  If I brought home the wrong colored tie on a loaf of bread, it was back to the store I went.  God forbid the bread was a day old.  I never did know which color was which.  Or rather how SHE knew.  Now they just stamp the dates on the bread.  Jeez, why didn't they do that back then?  Let's see, where was I?  Oh yes, the frugality of being raised by someone from the "Great Depression".    She and my Aunt Mary (her sister, in Savannah) both had the same idiosynchrosies about things.  Aunt Mary hoarded apple juice, toilet paper and soap.  I never could figure out WHY those particular things.  Perhaps they didn't have them 'back then'.      I try not to hoard things, but I have to tell you - right now I have enough toilet paper, paper towels, paper napkins, bars of soap, bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and even q-tips to open a small sundry store.  We will never run out of toilet paper - I know this is a comfort to those of you who visit on a regular basis! 

While I save virtually EVERYTHING, my husband saves nothing.  Nothing!  Even things he SHOULD save.  So the way I see it, we balance each other.  Between the two of us, we have an acceptable amount of 'stuff'.  He and I met each other in midlife.  I already had a home, so did he.  When we combined the two, we acquired SOOO much stuff that we have no room for it all.  I either need a bigger house, or to get rid of some things.  As the child of Depression - Era hoarders, we know that won't happen.  I'm keeping my stuff....just in case.  Even all the buttons.

This is where our story begins.