Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri
Katy is represented by
Greg Johnson at
WordServe Literary
Read more Katy at
LateBoomer.net
Recent Posts
- Try
- Becoming Brenda Starr
- Off Beat
- Scattered
- That’s It
- So I’ve Finally Signed With An Agent. Now What?
- The Spoon
- Sciatica
- Sweetheart
- A Woman’s Train of Thought Has No Caboose
- However much we own, we are all still living on borrowed time
- After all, when restaurants shrink portions, they don’t shrink prices.
- As with everything in life, balance is key.
- Slow down, you move too fast…
- Yeah, I know. I have issues.
Syndicate
E me at katy @ ngenius.com
Why, Oh Why Didn’t I Take Home Ec?
When I went to an all-girls Catholic high school from 1968-1972, I was exposed to an education that was nothing if not progressive.
Now, that may not seem possible to you. Could the nuns really have been ahead of the times as far as women’s issues were concerned? You might think we were all taught to get married and pop out babies as fast as humanly possible. I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, St. Teresa’s Academy was and still is known as a prep school—-and getting an Mrs. degree ain’t exactly what we were prepped for. I don’t know a single girl who would have claimed, even back in the old days, that she actually wanted to be a wife, mother, and homemaker to the exclusion of a career path with a whole bunch of letters before or after her name.
And while St. Teresa’s offered a class in Home Economics in those days, I wouldn’t have been caught dead taking it. Not when the hallowed halls of journalism, forensics, theater, and art beckoned. There were important issues to be debated, wars to be protested, bad poetry to be written, Bob Dylan songs to be sung, and yes, bras to be burned.
Maybe, if I’d signed up for Home Ec, I would have learned the most cost-saving way to burn my bra—-whether by lighting the gas oven and inserting it, using charcoal briquettes on the BBQ grill, or incinerating it in the furnace. Maybe I would have learned a whole bunch of other really smart stuff, too. The kind of stuff that would sure come in handy during my years spent as the Chief Financial Officer of the Raymond Home, whether I ever had a lucrative career outside the home or not.
I snubbed my nose at the idea, though. And so I learned by trial and error, and trust me, I learned a lot. I am grateful now that when my husband and I were young, we were poor. I am glad that when were were fledgling parents, I had the privilege of staying home with the kids. We could in no logical way afford for me to do so, and yet it worked out. And guess what? I learned more about Home Economics during those lean years that some people who apparently have more money than they know what to do with are capable of comprehending.
The thing is, when we started prospering, I still couldn’t get into the whole shop-till-you-drop mentality. I could do Nordstom’s, I guess. But why, when there’s a perfectly good Penney’s Outlet down the road?
After reading the New York Time’s article, which I recommend for the giggles if nothing else, all I can imagine is that times aren’t yet tough enough for true behavioral changes to take place. And every night when I watch the news, I just laugh. Have you ever seen so many goofy stories on penny pinching in your born days?
The spendthrift ways of a lifetime are rarely altered in a period of four or five weeks. It takes more serious pain than that for people who are used to indulging in not just one or two regular luxuries but a luxurious lifestyle to even begin to realize that there’s another (more sustainable and more satisfying!) way to live.
I’m not going to ask how you’ve “cut back” recently. I’m just not sure it’s the right question, judging by the ridiculous trade-offs the folks in this article have made. But maybe I’ll go ahead and ask if you took Home Ec in school.
If you did, I’m thinking you are feeling pretty good about your choice right about now. Congratulations on embracing wisdom in your youth!
- I learned home ec the same way you did--trial and error and on-the-job-training! And yes, I laughed at this article. It amazes me how people think!
Posted by D'Ann Mateer on 11/21/08 at 07:55 PM
- Home Ec? Is that cooking and sewing? Sadly, I am not very good at either one, but I can build a wall and drywall a room!
As far as cutting back and tradeoffs, I do think I drive less than I did these days, but I still allow myself my morning cup of Starbucks. I don't even feel guilty about the latter either :-)Posted by Joshua on 11/25/08 at 09:31 AM - Interesting article! Very informative for me . Thanks for sharing with us.
<a href="http://dave-mason.worldwidefanclubs.com">Dave Mason</a>Posted by Dave Mason on 01/01/09 at 05:28 AM - Great post.Keep up the fine work.
<a href="http://freethemelayouts.com">Wordpress Themes</a>Posted by Markvel on 01/05/09 at 12:21 PM - Terrific post. And your blog is gorgeous! Like you, I didn't take home-ec. This was considered not for college-bound girls, unless you were considering that field in college, of course. I learned by doing.
Posted by Marcia on 01/17/09 at 03:06 PM
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