I was watching my wife prepare supper recently and noticed she had two chicken breasts side-by-side. One of the breasts was filled with dressing and the second breast waited to be joined to the other breast via a piece of string.
It was then that I recalled my mother doing much the same as Gwen but there was one big difference; in those days string was available! Every little piece of string that came into the house was tied together and rolled into a big ball for future use.
String seemed to be a commodity that we couldn't live without.
How could one fly a kite without it; and what about preparing a package for shipment or the innumerable number of hand puzzles that string was used for?
Thinking back I vividly recall a lad in my class at school who used string to hold his trousers up! God help if the string ever broke.
There were many lads who, after wrapping their lower pant leg around their right ankle, used string to tie it in place thus preventing it from being caught in the teeth of the chain gear on their bicycle.
How many times did you have a piece of string tied to a loose tooth and someone would give it a yank when you least expected it, and voila, the tooth was extracted!
Christmas tree ornaments were placed on the tree via string and of course it was used to tie around a finger to remind us of something we had to do and it was so useful to tie a bandage around a cut.
I daresay that we could go on for hours recalling the multitude of things we used our precious string for but that's all in the past.
Sad isn't it?
Oh, by the way, my wife joined the chicken breasts together with skewers and thread.
