I caught this story on the BBC news website yesterday about how John Lewis have updated the old Government make do and mend booklet to help people survive the credit crunch.
I've always been a firm believer in thinking that there is so much we can learn from the generations that lived through the wars, but it almost seems a little late this update. I think that people are already starting to learn how to be frugal; how to stretch ingredients to make more than one meal, how to update those things at the back of the wardrobe rather than replacing them with something new. The Imperial War Museum has even already reissued the original 1940 Government booklet.
The penultimate paragraph of the article reads as follows:
When the recession is over no doubt these booklets, both the updated John Lewis version and the original version, will go back into the attic or head for the shelves of charity shops.
To me, that seems to be one of the saddest things. If we're going to really learn how to be frugal then books like this should either be the things that are kept for many years before being handed down to the next generation, or just completely unnecessary as the skills themselves are passed down. Deciding to consign the book to the attic after the current "crisis" is over really doesn't solve the long term problem.
I heard a version of that article on BBC World Service. I agree with you – and I really hope that people won’t just unlearn all these skills they’ve been adopting lately.