3 AM...Dark

One of those mornings...My eyes popped open and stayed, thinking it was time to get up...I started the coffee, did the bathroom thing, turned up the furnace and with coffee in hand took up residence in my recliner...I like this time, quiet and dark outside...Scrabble games are played with one hand, coffee in the other.

"Beauty School" essay "WAS" on my mind last night as I fell asleep...Rereading the FIRST paragraph last night the word "was" jumped out at me 6 times, 2 times the word "would" and 1 "had been"...All in the space of one short paragraph...So this morning I started work on that paragraph, didn't make much headway but wrote and rewrote as I added to this work in progress...Below I've included a paragraph or two about the way it "WAS" back in 1960....OWAV:)

The apartment rented for $38.00 a month, everything included. Sylvia acquired three jars, labeled them rent,  groceries and Sunday paper. Each month my parents sent a check for $50.00. Out of this I put $19.00 for rent, $1.00 for the Sunday newspaper and $10.00 for groceries, into the provided jars. I paid $10.00 a month tuition. (some of the tuition had been paid upfront and I paid the rest monthly). Leaving me $10.00 dollars spending money for the month, roughly 30cents a day. Non essentials such as soda pop cost 10 cents each, and then there were the essentials such as deodorant, tooth paste, unmentionables etc. It didn’t take me long to figure out that ten dollars didn’t stretch very far and I would have to budget carefully to get through the month. After the first two weeks I gave up the daily soda pop with my sack lunch. I would never ask Mom and Daddy for more money as I knew the checks they sent were more than they could afford.

An innate sense of “stretching my money” must have developed over the years as I watched Mom juggle the small amount of cash that came in monthly from the sale of milk and cream. As a teenager my only means of income was occasional babysitting for the neighbors 5 children. I never received an allowance or held a job during the summers unlike most of my classmates. Never received a pay check, nor had a checking account. I worked along side both my parents, milking cows, herding and feeding animals, cleaning pens (shoveling shit), worked in the harvest and a myriad of other jobs. If I needed money I asked for a few dollars. I had free use of the family car, filled it with gas from an underground barrel with a pump attached. My parents made sure I was properly clothed, not the latest fashion, but clean and mended if need be. Living on a farm we dined on a sumptuous diet of farm raised meat, milk, eggs, our own vegetables and Mom’s country cooking. If I needed money for a school trip it was given to me with the advice that if possible I wouldn’t spend all of it, having some left to use another day. So instead of spending every dime they gave me, my goal was to have money left over.