How they used it all up in the Ozarks!

**Shell** · 03-18-2006, 12:16 AM

http://thelibrary.springfield.missou...tch/ow502e.htm

Wow. We sure live a different life. Think of all the money we would have saved if we were that careful with everything.

**LadybugDreams** · 03-18-2006, 08:22 AM

Wow, thanks Shell...they really knew how to use everything! Great article!

**homesteadmamma** · 03-18-2006, 09:46 AM

The best part of this article is this:

Many modem Ozarkers have retained pioneer values of economy and self-sufficiency. They carry on the traditional craftsmanship of the early settlers who made what they needed by adapting their methods and materials to the region's natural resources. They produced useful and beautiful items at little cost. Perhaps their success was that with each possession, they were willing to use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without--in contrast with modem practice which seems to be, "Don't fix it, but why be without? Buy a new one, pitch the old one out."

Perhaps the pendulum is swinging back a little to the values that created the crafts in the first place. Following the old traditions, groups of ladies continue to meet together to quilt. The newer phenomenon of arts and crafts fairs attract men who remember how to make paring knives from old saws, baskets from white oak, or rope from binder twine. To perpetuate crafts knowledge, apprenticeship programs are placing interested young people with master craftsmen. The old philosophy is earning a new place in a society so inundated with "things" that a mammoth problem has been created--what to do with all the stuff we throw out.

Just as the pioneer used the materials that were available to him, so do the modem crafts people use what they have, creating something useful and beautiful out of "trash." I've seen beautiful mats crocheted with the colorful plastic bags most of us throw away. I've seen plastic toothbrushes carved into needles for use in sewing rugs. Though traditional crafts enthusiasts may disdain these modem materials, are not those who use them following the traditional philosophy? Will crafts boosters 50 years from now value the items made from plastic as we value those from wood? The philosophy is the same; use whatever is available to make something needed, and make it pretty as well.

I love that they continue on the tradition.