Waste not, want not…

Back when they were in China, when Nai-nai was young, they [Nai-nai and her family] were hungry (well I guess at least Nai-nai was really hungry) and what I remember is this…

Her dad was a drunk, he was really bad. He used to beat them all the time and he wouldn’t take care of them. Every time they had money that would make it so they were able to get food, he wouldn’t use it for that, he would gamble it. And they were mad because he’d lose the money and go drinking, and then he’d feel bad about it so he’d come home and beat somebody.

Nai-nai’s mother was always working, so she was mostly with her sisters. We don’t know her, but she was kind of mean, Nai’nai’s oldest sister. She was really mean I guess because she was the oldest so she had to be like their parent, but she’s no longer alive now… and I don’t think she ever came to the US…

Anyway one day, Nai-nai was really really hungry, and she had no food. She saw, through the neighbor’s window, potatoes, sitting on the windowsill. They were setting it on the windowsill to cool down because they were freshly baked. It was cool, but breezy… so the aroma of the potato wafted in the wind… When Nai-nai saw it she said she could smell it… and it was steaming still, which she could see… and she was so hungry she went and took it, but she took more than one, I think she took two because she wanted to bring some home to her sisters, that she thought would make them happy but it didn’t. And so her oldest sister beat her silly… and made Nai-nai give the potatoes back to the neighbors, who felt so sorry for Nai-nai and said she could take them because they knew she must have been so hungry. But Nai-nai’s sister wouldn’t let her because she said it was wrong. Nai-nai stole them.

How did you come across this folklore: “everyone in the family knows this story, and now you guys have probably been told the story as a supplement to the American (soft) version, “waste not (want not)” because of the lesson forewarning you (and all of the other kids) to never waste, especially food.”

Other information: “That was one of the turning points in her life where… she really realized you’re not supposed to steal, period. She became a Pharisee (a legalist); OBEY THE RULES OR DIE, basically. She told it [this story] to us a couple times I guess, but now she uses it more for the little kids, one of those lesson-teaching stories to scare them into not wasting (and not stealing).”

Proverbs circulating through families are often accompanied by a story. For my family, the reason why wasting essentially qualifies for consideration as a mortal sin, is because of one of those grandparent stories from “back in the day”…  For us, the ultimate proverb is “waste not, want not,” and the story around it is nai-nai’s (my father’s mother)’s story about the time she was beat to within an inch of her life for stealing a single potato.