Learning to do without some things

There are times in life when you  can’t always have what you want or are used to having. We sometimes use substitutes or just do without.

When I received orders to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba we learned to live the way we did as kids shop during the daylight hours. On board Gitmo the Commissary closed at 5PM the Exchange and Gas station closed at 6PM.

Commissary = Groceries

Exchange= General Store.

There was a small quick stop that closed at 9PM. So at 9:30 PM you realized you did not have eggs or milk, you made it without. It was a minor inconvenience. However There were no ‘tire or auto parts stores’.  We learned to live out of catalogs like the farmers and folks did years ago.  Of course there was the ‘Dump’ where many car parts could be found.

But it wasn’t hard to get used to buying during day light hours.  And after awhile it was not even an inconvenience.

I have mentioned rationing before (probably too  many times, showing my mental state and age). But not only Americans but folks in every country learned to do without when the World was at war. I had to get older before I realized the fact that folks in Great Britain and also folks on the other side of the war,Germany and Japan, also faced strict rationing.

When my sister Kat got married they moved into a new one bedroom house in the country. There was no electricity because during the war the builder could not get copper wire to wire the house, copper was rationed. They were using kerosene lamps. As a kid I  thought that was really neat, like camping.

I really believe it is good for us to learn to live without something's. I also think it is good for children to be taught and shown that they cannot have EVERYTHING they want.

I loved visiting my older brothers and sisters. They were all young newly weds.  Sister Kat and Sister in law Ruth both were like another mother and spoiled me, along with their kids. Kat taught me how to steal green apples and once Ruth picked a watermelon from a farmer’s field for us to have at one of our picnics. (I am sure they knew both farmers. .)

About the only thing we do without here in the motor home is space.  You cannot continue to buy, unless something goes out.

Thanks for stopping by the Log.

Nite Shipslog

PS: As long as we have love and health we can get by without many things

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Another good 3-D truck painting

Christmas, it is fast approaching