Savers

Savers: Swoon 25

I was cleaning out the medicine drawer the other day. Expired stuff, random bandaids (with that weird bandaid thing happening, open a bit and curled at the edges), miscellaneous pills out of their bottles, a mess. I assume others have these drawers, if not, they are yucky and need a good clean out every once in a while.

As I was purging, I found a bunch of homeopathic zinc cough drops, loose in the back of the drawer. I tossed them, they were individually wrapped but a bit soft from being out of their bag. Gross.

People who lived through wars, depressions, poverty… people with these histories do not throw out cough drops that are a bit soft, or bandaids whose wrappers are a bit grungy. They save everything. They use every drop. They repurpose everything. Tins become vehicles for growing herbs, yogurt containers are repurposed for homemade soup, gift ribbon collected for reuse. Smart.

I grew up hearing about my great grandma. During the Armenian Genocide she would tell her kids she was not hungry (she was), giving them her one piece of bread that she had saved all day. My mom telling me about making soap, and the food rations in WWII. My in-laws telling me about receiving used coloring books for Christmas, and eating lard sandwiches with a sprinkle of sugar (I can only think of a Twinkie when imagine this). I have watched my father-in-law scraping all remains of food from pans… as one of 17 kids on a South Dakota farm in the 30s…nothing was ever wasted. Sigh, I listen to the stories, but somehow do not learn.

Reading through tips for this lovely virus floating around, I read one report that zinc drops are helpful. The theory is, using them in crowds is a preventative tool, because they stop the virus from wanting to enter the nose or throat. Who knows, but it certainly can’t hurt.

Maybe a pandemic will teach me to be a little more thoughtful with the bounties before me. Zinc drops, sigh, I had them right in my little hands.