Nothing’s Like it Used to Be 2012

In the last year our extended family has acquired a new husband and a new baby.  Hanging Christmas stockings has been a tradition in this family for a number of years and I’ve been trying to knit new stockings for these new family members.   Would you believe I cannot find good yarn?   In 2001 and 2002 I knitted 20 + stockings and used the nicest, softest yarn.  The yarn I’ve found today is stiff and hard which makes a coarse looking stocking.  Yes, I’ve tried Hobby Lobby and Joann’s.  Now I’ve ordered a few skeins on line and am anxious to see how it turns out.  However, the angora I use for Santa’s beard that I’ve ordered is nothing compared to a little I had left over.  I’ll have to knit the angora double on the beard and then it won’t be as full as one strand of the old.

And another thing, I’ve worn Vanity Fair under pants for years and years.  One time when we were watching Colombo solve a murder he pointed out that Vanity Fair panties have the label on the left side and that makes it so easy not to put them on backwards.  Well, last week I bought new ones, which I had not done in quite some time, and would you believe they have no label at all?  There is a pale stamp on the fabric in the back and without my glasses on that’s a challenge.  And another thing, the fabric is not the same.

Have you noticed toilet tissue?  The width of the paper is narrower and the price is up.

And then there’s the Blue Bonnet products —  here again, for many years I used Blue Bonnet margarine and I see Blue Bonnet Margarine advertised in the paper all the time; however, when you go to buy it the word “margarine” is not on the box – it says “spread.”  And the two are not the same.  I’ve baked an oversized pound cake and used the Blue Bonnet margarine probably 100 times or more, but I can’t bake it with the spread and have it come out the same.  John worked for Lockheed for 34 years and one thing he could always bank on was having a slice of that pound cake in his lunch.

I used to love using Hellman’s Mayonnaise, but of late it’s been watered down so much there is no comparison to the taste of yesterday’s Hellman’s and today’s Hellman’s.

Gardening related items are different, too.  Plants are priced out of sight and in a seed package there will be half as many seed as there used to be, but it’s priced higher.

I have not begun to scratch the subject, but nothing is like to used to be, including country living.