Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
The Old Grind
I miss plain. I miss making do. I miss the feeling that what I have would have to be good enough. I miss never thinking that other people had it better.
I miss hash.
I miss seeing Sunday’s leftover pot roast curling out of the meat grinder. I miss seeing my mother tamp down the extra boiled potatoes. I miss all the things that we did to make do.
Now the refrigerator seems empty long before it is. Nothing quite suits.
The things that are plain are unattractive. I have no patience for making do. It takes time to accept what I have and to believe that it is good enough.
I may have forgotten how.
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Written in response to this prompt from The Daily Post: Of all the technologies that have gone extinct in your lifetime, which one do you miss the most?
8 Comments on “The Old Grind”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Up until very recently, I lived rustic. I remember some winters waking up with my blankets frozen to the wall. I have all these stories of making do that people respond to with ‘I could never do that!’ but when you are in the middle of making do, and have no other choices, (or choose to make no other choices as in our case) you don’t have anything else to compare to. You simply make do. Now I have an old house with electricity and a flushing toilet. And now that I don’t ‘make do’ I wonder who I am and how my stories will change. Will I find anything interesting to turn into stories, when the challenge of making do is done? Wonderful post.
I think I’ve lost all of my rudimentary making do skills and I think that’s a shame. Kind of envy your rustic past.
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What did your mom make with ground up left over pot roast? What’s a tamped down potato? Go grind your pot roast in a food processor, but enjoy good old plain cooking!
Hash!
Great post. I miss the chats over the back fence with the neighbour. These days they are not home! 🙂
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