Happy Father's Day to the Brick!

 To the man who loves his kids -- and his little redhaired doggie -- as much as this guy. 

Happy Father's Day, Sweetheart!  

All of us love you back == very much.

Woof!

 

Ruby for President.

or at least VP.

Home Free

I love this band, especially the bass singer. His voice is much like the Brick's. Most of their work is a cappella...which is not easy.

Here are three selections, for your Friday listening:

 Seven Bridges Road

Sea Shanty medley

and my own favorite, Man of Constant Sorrow

Silence is Golden

 

 See?  Even two years later, nothing much has changed..

Childhood Money Memories - the Redux

 Thought you might enjoy this classic post from many years back, edited and updated a bit. (I'm still having to send most of my old posts back to 'draft' status...someone is still trying to piggyback their posts onto mine.)

While the hambone is simmering in navy bean soup (it's the Michigan coming out in me), I ran across some bloggers talking about growing up -- and how they felt about money.

What are some of your childhood memories of money?

A few for me:

*Watching my brother pick up yet another dime or nickel from the ground...I rarely seemed to find any. (Daughter #2 has this talent, as well.) Worrying that I was going to lose the grimy pennies or nickel clutched in the fuzz at the bottom of my pocket. Admiring the shiny plastic coin purse or wallet I got for my birthday, and feeling pride at the dollar bills stashed inside.

*Halloween candy -- with Brother helping eat up my share. (He kept his under his bed, until it was hard and crunchy.) Christmas candy went the same route. (We rarely got any $$ for birthdays, though we had presents and a special cake.)

*A metal bank -- with a hand that reached under the door and snatched your coin, before yanking it back. (I always preferred coins to dollar bills -- the bigger, the better.) Large glass gumball machines that demanded a nickel -- or a quarter for a jawbreaker. Glass cases at the Ben Franklin five-and-dime, full of candy. (If I was feeling wealthy, I'd get 10 cents' worth of heart-shaped redhots.) The chocolate-covered peanuts the Mama invariably brought back from a shopping trip. (I preferred red licorice -- it lasted longer and didn't melt in your pocket.)

*A trip to the library on Saturday mornings -- then a stop at the ice cream store across the street. Should I try to work my way through the 24-or-so flavors...or stick with bubble gum, my favorite? (I usually caved to the latter.) Then it was on to the store for the week's groceries. We invariably had hamburgers and french fries for supper that night.

*Selling corn and raspberries (from our garden) out by the road to passing motorists, with a few homemade potholders of my own on the table, as well.

*Picking fruit -- especially blueberries and strawberries. We couldn't afford the little plastic boxes at the supermarket, but standing in the sun, popping a warm berry in your mouth, was a pleasure not to be bought at the store. My grandma in a feedsack apron, scarf wrapped around her head, looking like the pictures of European peasants I saw in books. (Europe was an incredible far-off place to this Michigan farmgirl. I had no idea I'd visit there in my college years.) Buckets of berries, poured carefully into quart boxes. Then home to make jam, with the sweetness permeating the kitchen air -- and 'foam' scraped off to eat on a cracker. Jars lined up on the table, with a hazy skim of wax protecting the fruit.

*Starting work at the hardware store, age 15. I worked there 5 days a week -- no Sunday or Thursday -- all through high school, and some college breaks and summers. I was so excited: instead of the 75 cents I was paid for babysitting, I would get a munificent $1.50 an hour!
(Daughters yawned at this...they got $5-6 hourly babysitting one kid.)

*Having a bowl of clam chowder one snowy day during lunch break from the hardware store -- and tipping the waitress $5. (Left a thank you note, too. She WAS great, even to a snot-nosed high schooler like me.) Watching the farmers come into Cnossen's for coffee and a doughnut, then across the street to pick up a part at the hardware store. Running across the street at breaktime to the bakery for a large, warm oatmeal cookie. (A huge splurge I didn't dare to attempt much -- cost perhaps 50 cents!)

*Buying The Mama an angel candle that cost TEN WHOLE DOLLARS for Christmas. I cannot even now tell you how much that sum represented back then. Must have been about 8th grade. (She never burned it -- I brought it home from her estate.)

     Saving for other presents took a very long time. Invariably they were homemade.

*Spending a day shopping 'downtown' (the la-dee-dah spot in Grand Rapids) with The Mama, cousins and our aunt. We'd head straight to Wurzburg's, have a chef salad at their lunchroom, then analyze the dresses before going down to the bargains in the basement. (To this day, I still associate chef salads and Wurzburg's -- long out of business -- with careless, prodigal luxury.) After a few more stops to check clothes styles, we'd go to the fabric store and pick out a pattern and fabric as close to the store models as we could get. My mom sewed beautifully -- she often did tailoring for other people, including suits and wedding gowns. Excepting cousins' hand-me-downs, I don't think I had a storebought dress until I was a junior in high school.

*Saving half my money for college. No matter what, even though this was a far-off dream back in the late 60s and 70s. Ten percent for tithing, the rest was mine for whatever was needed. (I tried very hard not to ask my folks for cash -- that's what jobs were for, although I did get 50 cents a week in allowance through middle school. Again, it's difficult to express HOW MUCH that 50 cents represented.) Dollar by dollar, that money built up my savings account -- and was enough to pay a good chunk of my first year in college.

*Working, working, working. Taking any job I could find at Grand Rapids Baptist College. That ended up including housecleaning, secretarial work for a CPA, selling at a pick-your-own apple orchard, waitressing, tutoring, typing papers for other students, teaching...and working the Sunday morning shift washing dishes in the "Pit," the college cafeteria. I would come back to the dorm exhausted, smelling of grease and eggs. (It was good training for a short stint at Wal-Mart years later, doing much the same thing...but adding making cotton candy and popcorn.)

*Grad school at the University of Michigan. Living on canned spaghetti, invites to the local commune from a fellow English Lit buddy, or the $1.35 fried rice special at a local Chinese restaurant in Ann Arbor. (Where, incidentally, I met a tall North Carolina boy, fresh out of the Navy, one day!) My home was the attic of a gracious, ivy-over-brick 'mansion.' I lived there, and got breakfast in return for keeping the house clean and looking after their 12-year-old daughter. (Lunch too, if I came home and walked the dog.) He was the chairman of the Classics department, she was a lawyer -- and the oldest daughter of the British novelist Evelyn Waugh. I read many British novels that year, and developed an appreciation for Victorian art -- especially Augustus Egg -- and Italian Nativity sets.

"The Traveling Companion," one of Egg's paintings

*Our first (student) apartment as a married couple -- $115 a month. Even that amount was hard to come up with, and I was working full-time! We ate a lot of ramen (especially a brand called Sapporo Ichiban, which was 25 lavish cents), chicken noodle soup and peanut butter sandwiches back then. I threw a surprise birthday party for the Brick our first year -- invited 11 or 12 people. I didn't think of our place being small until then. It was so crowded that no one literally had room to sit down. (My brother-in-law spent the evening lying underneath the dining room table.)

Writing these down, I suddenly realized -- a lot of my money-related childhood memories also have something to do with food! Weird...

This would have been incredibly luxurious, back when I was a kid.

Pondering One's Significance

 

"Why isn't my picture up there?"

Monday Stuff on the Way to Other Stuff: Flooding, Hail -- and Other Colorado Weirdness

      Colorado has been having more than its share of strange weather: flooding, hail, windstorms, etc. But other than some very strong winds and grumbling thunderstorms that produced a spit of rain...we haven't gotten any of it. The Denver area, on the other hand, including our old stomping grounds in Castle Rock, has been nailed. Here's the weird part: one neighborhood can be inundated, and the next one is just fine. Case in point: our good friends in Castle Rock said they had a "downpour," but their basement, which so often floods, stayed dry. ("We do live on a hill," Friend pointed out.) But their neighbor, who'd ordered a truckload of mulch, had it all flow down into the main street. (Which didn't need it, quite frankly.) So, if you can hang in there for the five or thirty-odd minutes when all hell is breaking loose, you'll be fine. Otherwise, good luck. 

     Welcome to Colorado.

     This has been a very time-intensive weekend for us...way more than we planned. All four kids were here for a night, which was wonderful, but meant rushing around to get meals ready and beds available. The Brick had to lead music Sunday for Worship Team, so I stayed back to make breakfast and see everyone off. 

     But one set of kids came in via tow truck -- their Jeep threw a belt. That meant a trip to Alamosa for repair parts before they could head home. (Their dog is staying with us while they take care of business.) Meanwhile, Ruby had a sudden health crisis, which meant rushing her to the animal hospital this morning. Fortunately, she is doing better, and the vet was encouraging. But it also means we have to keep an eye on her basically 24/7, feed her antibiotics, and keep her from licking her damaged belly. 

     And of course, I have work to do -- that needs to get done. A lot of it. 

     The fun never ends around here. 

Meanwhile:

China's famous waterfall is still going --thanks to a convenient pipe!

Did Nancy Pelosi admit, ON JAN. 6, that the National Guard wasn't more prepared, because of her? Take a look and see what you think.

Are we trying too hard sometimes to make everybody happy with our actions?  'Are you doing everything wrong -- or just feeling that way?' wonders The Frugal Girl. 

The journalist who broke the Hunter Biden laptop story speaks out.

Cooking tips from movies and tv shows. 

Ranch dressing -- a few different ways.  (From The Kitchn)

A blue room is found in Pompeii. (This color usually designates something important.)

A World Cup skier and his girlfriend fall 2300 ft to their deaths...sad.

A 'fake' Degas is purchased online for $1000 -- turns out, it's real! (And valued at approx. $13 million.)

The Colorado Bureau of Investigations scientist who deleted and took shortcuts in her DNA analysis "'cause it was easy." Now more than 650 of her cases are under question. 

The great white who ate a dolphin -- before an orca killed him and ate his liver. No, I am not making this up.

Buy a Detroit house -- and get a free speakeasy in the basement!

An interesting interview with Kevin Costner -- how he got ahead by accepting roles everyone else turned down. 

"Earning less passive income has changed my life for the better," says the Financial Samurai.

Battlefield heroes against the Taliban.

One of the two reporters who wrote the Wall Street Journal article on Biden's cognitive fitness holds forth -- the point was, she says, to show whether the President is the same in front of -- and behind -- "closed doors." (She says yes.)

Unusual discoveries in secluded places.    

How a 'financially literate' doctor got scammed out of $750,000.

Five reasons why the Covid epidemic probably started at the Wuhan lab...  from a Harvard researcher.

Now we know -- even though the Wuhan lab was funded with taxpayers' money, it didn't count because the virus was not yet known to affect humans. Anthony Fauci says so. (Oh, by the way, he's backing up from insisting on kids masking and the 6-ft distance business, as well. 'I may have approved this - I don't remember. Even if some studies said it didn't help, others may disagree.')   More here, if you can stomach it.

Now for something extra soothing: you'll need it.

Have a good week.