...that in this economy sources report SO many changes and adaptations in our American habits in just a short time. More of us are brown-bagging it at work, more are cooking at home rather than dining-out or ordering-in, we're camping and fishing rather than taking expensive vacations, we're reverting back to ironing our own clothes rather than dropping them by the Cleaners, more folks are buying percolators and brewing coffee at home than ever before... I thought it was interesting that most of these were food related- or at least related somehow to homemaking. It's amazing just how deeply into LUXURY our enjoyment of cuisine takes us as we prosper more and more in society. I take this as a clear sign that we who love the art of cooking are in it for all the right reasons!

The meaning of brown bagging it.. is that a packed lunch? :confused:

I always took a packed lunch to work, an my husband still does. I would never dream of taking my ironing to a dry cleaners or to the laundry.

I have always brewed my own coffee in a perc. I've tried a filter machine but the coffee was tepid. Not nice.

I know it is a small town but we do have these facilities here, but I would never use them ordinarily. I worked in a dry cleaners as a teenager and they are nothing but crooks.

Most of the stuff that is labled dry clean only can be washed with a tinsy little bit of washing up liquid and cold water at home.

Curtains are never pressed in the dry cleaners, they come out of the large machine warm, they are quickly folded and left.

It's a swizz.

Yes Keziah "Brown-bagging" is a term for a lunch you put into a brown bag and carry. I have always carried my lunch to work - namely left-overs! They are so good and nicer to eat than a cold sandwich or such. When I was a child our lunches were in little brown-bags that had our names scribbled on them. I like p-nut butter and jelly, but the jelly always made the bread too moist and yucky, bologna and cheese was my favorite, and liverwurst> FORGET IT:( I would get sick to my stomache, I do not know why she even put that into my lunch---liver has always made me sick!) I understand that this bad economy is making it necessary for folks to "Brown-bag" their lunches, but I think that is not a bad thing or a big deal at all! Except for all the restaurants that are loosing all the revenue they would normally get!!!