>
> When trying to get my mother to dispose or give away three of
> the four flyswatters I find on a hook, she'll say "well, they' paid for"
> or "they're mine!"
>

You mentioned some of the reasons/excuses given for this but when it comes
to older folks, especially those who were born or raised in the Great
Depression (no not the one of the past decade) it's a bit different.  These
are people who spent a lot of years doing without, or learning to make do
with what they had and they have an attitude of NEVER AGAIN.   They don't
typically tend to be wasteful, but they have a passion for redundancy in
possessions... granted four flyswatters may not be a great example, but
there are probably plenty of other items there are two (or maybe three) of
and the response you'll get to eliminating the surplus is "what if the one
I'm using breaks?"

I had this discussion with my Mother in the past when we were in the process
of winnowing out some of her extraneous household possessions and she pulled
out a box that had some leftover war ration stamps and WPA "points" in it
and she explained to me (again) how they worked. A book of "X" stamps were
given per person in your household after you could prove citizenship (birth
certificate the first time, then a card you received for future visits) and
even babies got stamps. Initially you had them for various commodities
(coffee, sugar, flour, gas, clothing, etc) and there were limits as to how
much you could get **IF** the products were even available.  Later they
distributed them in colors, and the colors signified the types of
commodities you could use them for. 

She said this was a lot different than during the Depression when no one
could afford things, but they were available... post-Depression, as jobs and
money became more plentiful, people starting buying things and hoarding them
because they feared things would get worse again... and then WWII and large
volumes of commodities were being diverted to serve the Military, so
rationing began.

So when dealing with older people, keep in mind they aren't coming from the
same place as some of the rest of us... it's not like keeping three broken
toilets because you might need the parts, or getting a new lawnmower and
keeping the old one 'in case you need to use it one day'  =)

Larry
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