The ball of aluminum foil...
My grandmother had a ball of aluminum foil. My grandfather had a loaf of moldy bread.As a child, I questioned these things and told it was to remember a time in their lives when things weren't so good.
During World War II, my grandmother said everything was scarce. They often washed aluminum foil and hung it to dry so it can be used again. The ball was her collection of remembrance.
My grandfather had a painting of a village and the bread was on the shelf. He remembered his time as a soldier. The troops were crawling on their bellies to avoid detection from enemy forces. They had no food and ate from the scraps found in the garbage cans.
The subject today is hoarders... (thanks Fay) and my grandmother hoarded lots of things. Mostly newspapers and magazines. In the beginning, it was for a purpose. When the purpose was no longer needed, she continued to collect things.
After her death, her house came into the care of my cousin who had the task of ridding the place of so many things. Boxes and boxes of magazines.
Was it all junk?
I'm sure some of her Hollywood movie magazines were collectable. Not much more than that. It's doubtful my cousin found any value in them and they ended up in a dump.
Comments (4)
but that's the first time, that I've ever heard of anyone keeping moldy bread on purpose.
You'll find a lot of these hoarders at garage sales and thrift shops where they can continue to make purchases when they have very little money.
Two of the things she hoarded were sugar and flour. It was currency in her native Germany around the time of WWII. If you wanted clothes made, the question was not "How much?", but "Zucker, oder Mehl?"
The irony of it was that she couldn't cook to save her life, never mind bake with sugar and flour.
Whilst my pantry consists of two small boxes, I find myself with a similar mentality. Whilst I'm surrounded by grocery stores and unlikely to starve, I always have to have just a little bit of a security blanket.
The legacy of war doesn't stop with the ceasefire: it goes on for many generations.
Think of all the places in the world where there is conflict. Think of a time in the future when grandchildren and great grandchildren not yet born have boxes with a stash of food, just in case.
Think of what we do to people who do not yet exist.