My grand daughter was here this weekend with her husband and 3 kids ages 5-13. All boys! It was a lovely visit and I look forward to the next visit. Her husband carpeted my stairs and did a lovely job. I want to go on record as saying, the title of this blog is in no way connected to her family. It just brought back memories of when I was first out on my own and my kids were my complete responsibility. That was a horror story.
Having spent a couple weeks with mother watching the kids and my working, I rented a house down on Smith Street. The first thing that happened was I hired the girl across the street to babyset. Then the car broke down. I paid $49 to Clell Burnett for a 1949 Black Ford 2 door. Sam immediately poured sand in the gas tank. School started and Debbie immediately came home with a ring worm. I knew about ring worm and how to treat them, but she could not stay in school with out a doctors note, so off we went. Treatment consisted of shining a purple light on it to be sure it was a ring worm and then a tube of something to smear on it which did not work. Total cost for that (not to mention my time off from work) was $10. A car cost $50 and a doctor visit 20% of that. Hmmm.
Time passed and the neighbor girl stole any jewelry I had, Sam set the bed on fire, and my rental house began to leak. The landlord told me if he fixed the roof, my rent would be raised. Apparently I had not read the fine print about the roof being extra!
Mother at that time, had her house at 217 West 5th setting empty and she let me move in there with the understanding that I would make the house payments and all upkeep. Sounded like a dream come true. She still owed $11,000 on it. It was perfect for us. Bunk beds for the one bedroom and twin beds in the front bedroom. Huff family lived right up the street with kids my kids age. They also had a big dog. They also had head lice!
Now, I will go on record as saying ring worm is a whole lot easier then head lice! Ring worm can actually be controlled with a cotton ball and a bottle of Clorox. Head lice requires washing everything in hot water, medication on a fine tooth comb and doing it over and over again. Nope. Do not want any more of that. Seems like if you have one or 2 kids that Lady Luck lets you slide; 5 kids, not so much. Luckily, back then, immunizations were requested, but not required. I tried to keep the kids current and with help from the programs at school I managed to get them all into puberty without any of them contracting, small pox, polio, or any of the other fatal diseases. Childhood illness was kept to a minimum, thanks to God and love of their mother!
So here I set almost 60 years later remembering how I raised kids, and how the are raised today and I can not help but be amazed. Her oldest son is 13 years old and I think she said he is 5'7" and Lord only knows how much he weighs! He is actually the same size his grandpa was when I married him! Big boy. Bigger than his dad. Wonder what she feeds that kid! I know he plays football. Very polite kids. At least I think they are polite. There is always the off chance that they are scared to death of me! My kids called my mom "Grouchy Grandma". I wonder what these kids call ME? They actually seemed to like me. I could be wrong.
Well, this is what I woke up to this morning. Another day another dollar, I guess. Today is the day I am going to get something constructive done.
Yeah, right!
Having spent a couple weeks with mother watching the kids and my working, I rented a house down on Smith Street. The first thing that happened was I hired the girl across the street to babyset. Then the car broke down. I paid $49 to Clell Burnett for a 1949 Black Ford 2 door. Sam immediately poured sand in the gas tank. School started and Debbie immediately came home with a ring worm. I knew about ring worm and how to treat them, but she could not stay in school with out a doctors note, so off we went. Treatment consisted of shining a purple light on it to be sure it was a ring worm and then a tube of something to smear on it which did not work. Total cost for that (not to mention my time off from work) was $10. A car cost $50 and a doctor visit 20% of that. Hmmm.
Time passed and the neighbor girl stole any jewelry I had, Sam set the bed on fire, and my rental house began to leak. The landlord told me if he fixed the roof, my rent would be raised. Apparently I had not read the fine print about the roof being extra!
Mother at that time, had her house at 217 West 5th setting empty and she let me move in there with the understanding that I would make the house payments and all upkeep. Sounded like a dream come true. She still owed $11,000 on it. It was perfect for us. Bunk beds for the one bedroom and twin beds in the front bedroom. Huff family lived right up the street with kids my kids age. They also had a big dog. They also had head lice!
Now, I will go on record as saying ring worm is a whole lot easier then head lice! Ring worm can actually be controlled with a cotton ball and a bottle of Clorox. Head lice requires washing everything in hot water, medication on a fine tooth comb and doing it over and over again. Nope. Do not want any more of that. Seems like if you have one or 2 kids that Lady Luck lets you slide; 5 kids, not so much. Luckily, back then, immunizations were requested, but not required. I tried to keep the kids current and with help from the programs at school I managed to get them all into puberty without any of them contracting, small pox, polio, or any of the other fatal diseases. Childhood illness was kept to a minimum, thanks to God and love of their mother!
So here I set almost 60 years later remembering how I raised kids, and how the are raised today and I can not help but be amazed. Her oldest son is 13 years old and I think she said he is 5'7" and Lord only knows how much he weighs! He is actually the same size his grandpa was when I married him! Big boy. Bigger than his dad. Wonder what she feeds that kid! I know he plays football. Very polite kids. At least I think they are polite. There is always the off chance that they are scared to death of me! My kids called my mom "Grouchy Grandma". I wonder what these kids call ME? They actually seemed to like me. I could be wrong.
Well, this is what I woke up to this morning. Another day another dollar, I guess. Today is the day I am going to get something constructive done.
Yeah, right!
