hoarding - inherited or learned trait

      above is a picture of my grandpa ad grandma , ines and cecil yockey. grandma was a classic hoarder from the depression era. having been born in 1913 and was 14 when the depression hit monroe county , ohio as well as the USA in general. people were jumping out of high rises for losing their fortunes and yet in monroe county there were no high rises just 2 story farmhouse at best. chances are you would have lived , and only bruised your ego at best. still they had to trudge on as work was slack at best when it could be found . money was hardly seen and bartering was the rule of the day to obtain anything. 

       little things meant a lot . a scrap of paper , a penny was prized as it was pennies that made nickels and nickels make dimes , and dimes make dollars, as she would tell me repeatedly. grandma and i had a pretty close relationship when i was a kid. grandpa and i shared a lot of time but after grandpas death it was grandmas turn to tell stories and share with me accounts of how things was. scraps of paper , pieces of tin foil were prized items during the depression as she shared her household with 2 older sisters and a brother , as well as her mom and dad. a piece of string , and a button were items to be saved, clothes were wore out to nothing but rags hanging on skinny bones from working all day just to feed the family. hoping tomorrow would be better. 

        so through this experience grandma would tell stories about her dad at christmas trading some stuff for some money for groceries at christmas and then buying an orange at christmas to take home to each kid. grandma had always said what a gift that was for christmas as orange in monroe county were far and few between and especially during the depression. a single orange was all that each kid had received for christmas and yet they were all simply happy in that it was such a wonderful gift. after hearing this story , i rarely look at an orange the same way and hardly ever take them for granted. 

        still it is the life you are dealt with that sometimes influences your behavior and i doubt it is inherited as much as we would like to think. to find blame in some trait or other would be so much easier to explain our selves too. grandma was subject to hard times and developed skills to cope with what they had and if anything she passed those skills on to mom and myself inline through observation , and learning. not all bad to be a hoarder on occasion , and yet i am still in my infancy in hoarding compared to other greats in my family , i can still find a kitchen sink somewhere. it is on top of the hill in the scrap pile. that  scrap pile only waiting for a rainy day to move itself. 

      grandma once told a storythat i had found it hard to believe this tall tale, but one day grandpa had wanted grandma to take a load of garbage to the local dump. at the time the dump  was usually just an empty strip pit devoid of life except some rats and garbage to attract them. but apparently grandma had found a treasure trove. broom handles perfectly good, as well as old blinds, and this and that so that soon grandma had a load of this same perfectly good stuff people were throwing away that she had filled the same truck she  had came to empty. she told me grandpa was so mad he never did  let her go to dump alone again. why i had such a hard time imagining this story, was because grandma hardly ever threw anything away. to think she had a pickup load to go to a dump was hardly believable in itself , but i could imagine grandma going crazy scavenging for things.

      now it is only with reverence and respect i say anything at all about grandma . she was a woman who had earned my respect very early in life. allowing me to drive her new 62 ford falcon for the first time through the flower beds and nearly hitting the house before she slammed her foot over top of mine and stalled the car out before impending doom. it was her that helped feed my brothers and sisters when we ourselves were having hard times . it was well known grandpa and grandma both helped feed and do things for others in the family. she deserves respect and is getting it now. i have nothing bad to say about her. but only look to her as an answer as to why i am like i am. 

       in the first picture you need to look beyond the frogs and notice the clutter that is our garage. boards and what not occupy the space and currently i will have my truck in there as i will attempt to fix the clutch. all the space is occupied as well as most covered spaces on the farm. rarely is a building built before soon it is full sometimes even before it is even finished. such just happened with my greenhouse as temporarily it holds some of the gardening items i will need as i move forward with the greenhouse project. the trouble is it is nearly a quarter full of pots and related items taking up valuable floor space. this all needs to be moved again by February. i ask myself how did this happen as i just finished building it. well i will have to answer tomorrow as i continue with this story line for awhile. when it comes to hording i have a lot to tell.