Growing up with my grandmother in the foothills of North Alabama was a peaceful experience full of freedom to play outside from dusk to dawn and enjoy the benefits of poor, underprivileged country living. 

Granny, as we called her, grew up in the depression and talk about it on occasion when she felt she needed to remind us we should be grateful for the things we have, rather than brood over the things we have not.

One thing I never understood, and often wondered, about Granny was her obsession with saving plastic containers from the grocery store.   Granny saved every butter bowl she could get her hands on and had them stacked to the ceiling in the storage room.  She saved jars too.  When we would ask her, "Granny, why do you save all those plastic bowls?"  She would reply, "We might need em'."

We thought she was just a crazy old woman with a plastic bowl fetish.  When my mother, aunts and uncles would try to get her to throw some of them out because there were so many, she stubbornly refused.

Now, I understand why she did it.  She grew up in the depression and also lived in a rural area, far from the soup and bread lines in the urban areas.  It wasn't just a matter of getting food, it has to be stored and kept long term as well.

Today, I find myself really thinking twice before I throw uneaten food away.  Leftovers aren't such a bad idea anymore, and I find myself holding on to a few of those plastic containers myself.

I'll never forget.  One year, my aunts and uncles bought my Granny a deep freezer and she thought it was the greatest thing ever.  How odd?, my 10 10 year old mind thought to itself...why is she so excited about a deep freezer?

Now, as a mother living dealing with this economic crisis, I get it... and, I wish I would have paid closer attention when she tried to teach us how to can and freeze food for the winter.