Parsimonious behavior

As post-war baby boomers, most of us had parents who had suffered through the Great Depression, and then WWII. They faced the poverty of the 1930s and then the scarcity caused by rationing during the war.

Both doing without and making do were part of our childhood culture. The 1950s were relatively affluent times, but the habits of constant economizing were so inculcated in the new parents of t...