Day 69, "Every picture has a story"
This is a tale of change. In the summer of 1970 we purchased a slightly used new car for $3800. It has 10,000 miles on it and had been driven by a salesman. Today you can purchased ONE wheel for $2,450 on this special edition Porsche but if you think you need 4 wheels of course it will run you $9,800 for the four. I would strongly suggest that IF you want to purchase this Porsche you get the 4 wheels!!! By the way, the car that goes with these wheels will set you back $170,000 but what the heck it comes with the wheels! I was looking at $$$ from way way back today. In 1969 I signed my first teacher's contract for $6,000. That meant I was committed to teaching 4th grade at the North Dakota School for the Deaf and also helping coach football and basketball. Well I have always thought that was a low salary even for that day BUT I see that today that salary would be the same as $41,666. Now, after 49 years, I know that my salary back then was kind of fair. I could add that our rent for the year was $95 a month but that was an on campus apartment with a bedroom, a huge bath, a huge living room and NO kitchen. Well to be honest it was on the second floor of an old girls dorm on the campus of the School for the Deaf. Try making a nice home for your family with NO kitchen!
Well yesterday was an interesting day. There was a mixed doubles tennis event at the club. I mostly do not do those things but really IF one does not enter you are kind of OUT socially. Well you may have noticed that I said event and not tournament. Why, well here is the telling story. The prize for first place was a 7 day trip to Hawaii but NO nights!!! I suspect the winners got maybe a gift certificate for $20 or so. Anyway I had to play with another lady as Terry is not playing tennis at this point. We won on a forfeit, lost 1-5, won on a tie breaker 8-6 and then lost again 3-5. I just can not get into the mixed doubles and do not know if I will do it again.
I am writing this morning on the second to last Sunday of 2018. I have changed my story about Sunday. I used to say I would enjoy Baileys in my coffee but now realize that I have been using a brand name so this morning I enjoyed Irish Cream in my coffee and to top it off I am enjoying Kona coffee.
We are in the high 40s this morning so for Naples that is cold. In my world it is not but when Terry gets up she will mention how cold it is outside.
We have changed our plans for Christmas Eve Day and Christmas Day. We were going to have a special meal Christmas Day but now we will be going over to friends for the day so will cut that meal out and that will affect Christmas Eve as well. It will be a light meal Christmas Eve and then church at 7:00.
We see where there are now piles of roof tile in driveways so we think our roof here will get tile on soon. It has been redone and water proofed for some time now but there was a delay on the tiles until now. Maybe be early January the roof will be finished.
Oh my we are enjoying our new 65" TV. All Terry has to do is touch Netflex on the remote and it comes up on the screen. Do you think we may be tempted to watch too many movies? No, on to my Christmas memories of long ago:
It was the Christmas of 1962. I knew it was going to be different this year. Ronald and Janet had been gone for a long time. Sure, they may come home for a visit during Christmas vacation but for sure they would not be home for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Joan had also been gone for a few years and I was sure she and Ron would be in Fargo with their family. The real bummer was Dave had graduated the spring before and almost as quickly as one could click your fingers he was gone and out of sight. That meant Mom, Dad, Helen and I were the lost souls of the Lee family. I knew that Mom and Dad would be OK but I also knew that they would light up like a real Christmas tree when they found out when Ronald/Glorine or Janet/John would come home for a visit. What would Christmas be like with just the 4 of us? Helen and I had school through Friday, the 21st. That gave me the entire weekend to think about what "used to be". During the weekend I intentionally did not get out of bed early in the morning. Part of that was the breakfast I knew would be waiting for me when I got up. Mom had gotten to the point that eggs etc were out and cold cereal was in, not for me. I would lie in bed, looking at the frosty tips of nails in the ceiling and think about now and what was. I thought about the Santa Claus Days in Lidgerwood, oh they brought back great memories. I remembered the times we would climb into the COLD car and drive to Grandmas and Grandpa's after we opened presents. I thought about the puzzles and games we used to get that carried us through the entire Christmas vacation. Well this year would be VERY different. Helen and I had many conversations about family that were far away and maybe we actually enjoyed feeling sorry for ourselves! What the heck I didn't even have a girl friend! I had enjoyed a girl friend in my freshman year of high school but she had decided to get into more INTERESTING boys as I had it figured out! Well I thought maybe we would visit Grandma Lee in Cayuga sometime. Grandpa had died several year ago and she was by herself. Saturday came and went, Sunday came and went and then Monday, Christmas Eve Day arrived. Well before that I even, kind of, wished for the good old days of Bergen Church Christmas Programs. Actually I pretty quickly dismissed that idea! I had told Dad and Mom that I would really like a clock radio. I would like to get up to my own alarm and then there was the summer time baseball games. I used to listen to the St. Louis Cardinals downstairs but now, as of 1961, we had the Minnesota Twins and I could listen to them IF I had a radio. There was a package above the kitchen cupboards that kind of looked like it could be a radio but I was not sure. Well Christmas Eve dinner came with the boiled potatoes, lefsa and lutefisk and then the presents. There were not that many and it seemed kind of empty without most of our siblings but then as I had learned to do, it was make the best of things. Later as Ronald died, Janet died and the farm burned that became an essential physical and mental approach that ONE had to take on. I opened my package and there was a cream colored radio with a clock. I was so excited and actually ran upstairs to plug it in and set it on the night stand (actually a chair) next to my bed. I found out later that when the temperature in my room got down to well below freezing the clock would lose time!!! Well to be honest maybe I lost time then too! That was Christmas of 1962. I do not remember a lot about the last ten days or so. I do remember we did have a holiday basketball tournament and our team won in easy fashion. As a sophomore I was not in the starting lineup but I got to play a lot. Christmas of 1962, a time to remember.
My FP Kona coffee is past it's hot temperature but I still can savor the taste of the Irish Cream so I am good for a while. I am hoping and expecting this Christmas to be one to remember as well.
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