Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecuadog
Yankee Magazine obviously believes that New Englanders are frugal too.
From their September 1990 issue of Yankee Magazine, their issue devoted to Yankee frugality:
"After learning untold uses for dryer lint, worn-out panty hose, and used dental floss, we present the winners of the Yankee frugality contest. In our September 1990 issue of Yankee Magazine, our issue devoted to Yankee frugality, we asked for your own frugal tips and anecdotes. You responded with more than 200 letters, many of them typed or written on the back of envelopes, brown paper bags, used computer paper, and other imaginative stationary. You told us what to do with worn-out socks and panty hose, how to stretch tea bags, and the best methods for splitting and resewing sheets to make them last longer. You suggested a remarkable variety of uses for vinegar, mothballs, salt, baking soda, dryer lint, and the little balls of cotton that come in pill bottles. We received two poems about thrift and one recipe for road kill. Your anecdotes were priceless. We heard about a man who stopped his clocks before going to bed every night and started them again in the morning and a family that always turned the lights out while eating dinner. We learned how to reuse helium balloons, refrigerator light bulbs, and dental floss. You told us how to make things last. ..."
(Are you assuming that I am a Non-New-Englander?)
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If Yankee Magazine had a contest for the most decorative pottery designs, would you come here and proclaim that New England is known for its pottery designs?
There's a term for this - when you start with a conclusion, and then cherry pick sources that will prove your conclusion true.
Historically, New England was known for frugality. Back when the Pilgrims showed up and had very little, and had to "make do". Maine has clusters where there are very poor people who live in the state's forests, and have to "make do" with natural resources, doing their own hunting/trapping and sewing their own clothes. And of course there are people who've chosen to live "off the grid" in other clusters of forest areas.
But all of that applies to every state in the country and is no longer specific to New England. New England is a land of excess and waste, just as every other staff embraces excess and waste.