We No Longer Know

The women's group handed out recipes to volunteers who were preparing the food for the party this weekend.
I looked at the recipe for dessert. Seven commercially prepared products that cost about $12 to buy, per recipe.
The folks in this congregation are all in the same boat, houses underwater, worrying about employment.
We no longer know how to cut back.
We continue driving as much as we ever did,
and shopping the way we did in 2002.

Memories came flooding back of the first recipe I got from the
big-city home ec. teacher.
I hunted all over town to find the ingredients.
My mother was appalled. "You got this in home ECONOMICS?
condensed milk, sugar, and ($$)coconut?"
And this next recipe: what is cherry soup?
I now know that it's a summer recipe for foodies, not so great during winter in a mining town in the 70s.

I thought of the nosy lady who advised me to buy cheaper ingredients when she saw me in the supermarket.
And the sympathetic women who told me as a young mother, about eggless, butterless, meatless meals.
I think of the lady beside me on the long bus ride from Butte, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota (24 hours)who told me about home canning during the depression.
I remember the "bag lady" who fed me when I was a starving student.
I think it's ironic that I remember her now, as I feed so many people, who simply do not know how to feed themselves.

Sometimes I think of my grandmothers, and Auntie Carrie too,
when I dip the water out of the washing machine (just before it spins) and use it to water the plants in this awful heat. (water is expensive here)

And when I teach I sometimes think;
"What if this recession goes on and on...
who will teach this next generation how to "make the best of it" if we ourselves do not know?"