Our neighbor Kenny has a new car (a bright red one).
Yard sales can be kinda fun if it wasn't for the work involved. I patronized the other two but only spent 50¢ at one and 35¢ at the other. I have to watch my expenditures as my two daughters and I are planning a trip to Florida soon to visit my oldest son. He has been building a patio and having the guest bathroom remodeled so he is looking forward to some company. I hope he is not doing the renovation himself.
Someone told me how wonderful it is for Dad to travel with, and have a bonding experience with, children. I'm sure it will be.
The yard sale went well but after seeing the cost of the plane ticket and for a rental car I should have saved the 85¢. We paid a reasonable price for the tickets but I found if you wish to sit down that is extra for seat selection and of course there is tax and a segment fee of $24 What is that? According to my Webster's nearly 1600-page dictionary a segment is a part of a circle or portion. There is also a fee for PFC but I can find no definition of that. A September 11 security fee. Although I have a great deal of sympathy for victims of that infamous day, I believe a security fee is a bit late. And now the big one: a carrier usage charge. Now, I must ask, what did the ticket price get me? I would like to call someone and question some of these charges but I'm afraid it might cost me.
Enough about that. I'll save my complaints until we touch down in Allentown upon our return.
Recently my mother said she would like to go upstairs in her home for some reason or other. When I asked why she would want to after having a bed and a full bath installed on the first floor several years ago she answered, "because I want to." Good enough for me. She made it just fine with my sister leading the way and me sorta watching her back.
When we returned to the first floor I brought a bag of old newspapers to look over with specific instructions that "I want those back." I found a lot of interesting reading for a couple of days including a history of the CCC camp at Laquin and the towns of Barclay and Masten nearly one hundred years ago. My father (Bob Matson) worked in the Masten, Ellenton area hauling logs and he fascinated me with stories of the town with car dealerships, stores, schools, and even a bar or two. He earned between six and eight dollars per week. As a former independent freight coordinator I remember a couple of weeks when I earned the same.
The front page of a 1967 Star-Gazette had the flood that hit Granville Center. The bridge on Route 514 was washed away. I came across a Williamsport paper dated October 5, 1944 with the headline reading "Leolyn Family Has 4 Sons Serving in the Military" with pictures of my Dad and his three brothers all fighting in England, Italy, France and the US. How hard this must have been for my grandparents Leon and Daisy. This same paper also had ads for shoes for $4.95. W. T. Grant sold dresses for $4.56. Acme supermarkets had fifteen pounds of #1 potatoes for 49¢ and bread for 9¢ a loaf; or if you baked your own, flour was $1.08 for 25 pounds.
Back here in Canton one could by a 16-inch truck tire for $17.40 at GLF and a Wizard battery from Rozell Porter's Western Auto for $13.65. These last two were from a 1950 Canton paper. Oh, yes, those were the good old days, or were they?
With another great-grandson to arrive in Indianapolis, and another granddaughter getting married soon "up on the mountain." As Paul Harvey would say, "stand by for news."
So far I have found just one ripe tomato about the size of a golf ball.
If wannabee presidents can fix everything when elected, why not now?