What a Nice Dish

Papa’s mother is a wonderful lady who grew up in  depression era, rural Michigan.  She is frugal, but like all of us, knows what she wants and likes.

M-in-L is legend for living a lifestyle that today’s recyclers should envy.  Reduce, recycle and reuse are hallmarks of her philosophy.  That brings us to the (what-a-nice-dish)  dish.  This particular model came home to granny’s after our last trip to see M-in-L.  In it’s first life, it held shortening.  At M-in-law’s house, it held a variety of things and proved itself very useful.  It carried some left over squash to Granny’s house, and we really enjoyed the contents.  Then, the dish problem.

My daughters have joked for years about M-in-Law’s frugal habits.  I am happy to report that they exhibit some of the same economical tendencies,   but they draw the line at  resuing  packaging, at least some of the time.  The snidely refer to every margarine and yogurt carton,  and anything similar  they see saying, “What a nice dish.”  That line is one they heard grandma use one too many times, I guess.   Well, perhaps it’s not snide.  But, the implication is clear, although they admire grandma’s frugal tendencies, they aren’t about to participate.  It’s so well known a phrase that D1’s friend J calls the refillable soda cups from the corner gas station, “What a nice cup(s).”

So, last night I had to decide which world I lived in, M-in-Law’s or that of my daughters.  I picked up the the dish, and hesitated….but I remembered that my cupboards are full even though I recently off-loaded some stuff for a garage sale.  And a shelf in the basement holds dozens of reusable containers, since they won’t fit in the kitchen.  And then, I carried the what-a-nice-dish to the recycling bin.  But I felt a twinge of guilt.  Figures.