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| The late Alec McLean - my dad. |
Re-use, conservation and sustainability were simply a way of life for dad, an ideal learned as he lived the lessons ingrained by the so-called Great Depression of the late 1920s.
Dad was in his 80s when he died, and although cautious of romanticising his life, I have memories of him having never having new clothes or for that matter, anything new, except a small, new, utility he bought before he died.
He did his best to dress with some dash for important family moments and as the State president of the Victoria Apiarists’ Association he sometimes had new shirts to accompany his suit for that body’s formalities.
His career as an apiarist (beekeeper) was built around second-hand everything from vehicles, clothes, screws, bolts, nails and anything else imaginable.
Our home and cement toilet in Echuca had been carted by dad, personally, from what was to become the Port of Echuca, his huge shed was built from used materials and was covered with metal stamped out and painted for kerosene tins, second-hand naturally, but unused.
Much of what was in our house came from auction sales as did some of my Christmas presents.
Loo paper was originally old newspapers until dad fell upon boxes of docket books at a clearance sale and so for many years a former Echuca dry cleaners had a new role in the McLean household.
Soon after my wife and I were married, we had mum and dad for meal of chicken and having cleaned the bird of all its meat, my wife was about to throw away the carcass, but dad asked for what was left arguing he could get three meals from it – he did!
Old furniture from auction sales fuelled our wood fires and in some instances became “bottom boards” on dad’s beehives; nails were carefully removed, straightened and stored for future use.
Dad’s times had made him a man for our time, before his time.
