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Monday, April 13, 2020

I DO HAVE IT ALL???


          The only newspaper I receive is the one delivered on Sunday. This morning I found myself wondering why I was reading the ads, such as they are now that the internet and Amazon have pretty much taken over the marketplace. For that matter, I barely read the actual news unless it’s something that catches my eye and doesn’t make me cringe. I still read my favorite columns; but really, it’s actually a waste of time, time I could use elsewhere. 

I can’t remember how old I was when I first began reading the Sunday paper, but I know it was the comics. My parents would spend Sunday morning going through the paper, reading and talking about a variety of topics. My mom liked football just as much as my dad, so they even talked about the sports news. 

Mom also went through all the sale papers and noted what was on sale. She always had a very tight budget so if at all possible, she would buy whatever we needed when it was on sale. As I got older, I too, began to look through all those pages, mostly to see the current or upcoming fashions even though I knew I’d never be able to shop at The Bon Marche or Nordstrom. Still, all those pictures gave me an idea of what kind of look to aim for. A boy I dated briefly after high school told me he knew my clothes weren’t expensive, but I always looked very well put together, so I guess I achieved my goal.

Once I had my own money to spend, I continued to look in the paper for bargains and rarely paid full price for anything. After marriage and the acquisition of a house that actually echoed it was so empty, it was even more important to look for needed items on sale. And, when we invested in things like furniture or appliances, we always saved to buy quality. Over the course of my 53-year marriage, it was a rare event when I actually paid full price for something we needed.

My family increased with the birth of first one son and then a second ten years later. The desire and need to count our pennies became even greater because neither my husband nor I wanted to put our children in day care or have them become latch key kids. Working for himself, my husband was able to do mornings and made sure the kids were up, fed and out the door on time for school. He even spent one year as the only father participating in a preschool program…he loved it because he was the only rooster among all the chickens.

I, on the other hand, am not a morning person, so it was easier for me to get up, get ready and leave the mornings to him. Instead, working part-time, I was able to be home in the afternoons when they came home from school as well as be a room mother, assist in classes and go on field trips. There were even a couple of times other neighborhood parents relied on me to have their children after school. 

As you must be able to tell, a big fat paycheck or expensive trips were not at the top of our must have list. Rather, we wanted our children to be able to rely on us whenever they needed us. We did such a good job of this that it didn’t matter who responded when one of them yelled for dad or mom…whoever showed up was fine and able to deal with whatever was happening. 

Of course, this made reviewing all those sale papers extremely important. Yes, we wanted our sons to have the latest fashions from the most popular stores and learned early we had created at least one monster. He needed basketball shoes and my husband purchased them at K-Mart. He refused to wear them while his cousin was delighted to receive a brand-new pair of shoes…we used to laugh about this one. At the same time, this child had one saving grace…he walked to the beat of his own drummer, so what was highly fashionable wasn’t necessarily what he wanted. 

Even so, reading those sale pages for clothes, shoes, stuff for the house and food was essential in order to make our budget stretch as far as possible. At one time, when I did the weekly grocery shopping, I visited at least three neighborhood stores plus one of those warehouses depending on what was on sale and on the list. 

I am at a point in my life where I have everything I need. Of course, there are things I would like to have only because they would be new and different, and I would like them better. Case in point:  my everyday dishes are Fiesta ware in very muted shades of blue, green and pink. I’ve had them for decades. There are no missing or broken pieces, but I would love to have a new set in the neon colors now available. That’s all, just a change to bright, beautiful colors, but certainly not worth an investment of hundreds or thousands of dollars. The same can be said for practically everything in this house.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that I have everything I need to last me for the remainder of my life. As I’ve blogged about in past posts, I plan to have a huge garage sale and then sell the house at some point in time. Depending on what’s left after the garage sale, then maybe I’ll have a need for some new stuff for my new place wherever it may be. The idea of a new little place with new stuff does make my heart beat just a tad faster.

Perhaps it’s time to discontinue the hard copy of the Sunday paper. Perhaps it’s time to turn my attention to the internet and look at properties for sale, little houses for sale for that property. I’m certainly not going to find those in the Sunday paper. Or, perhaps I should use the time wasted on the newspaper, forget about internet research and just celebrate the fact I've already got it "all."

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