I have never liked to shop while my wife made an avocation out of it. Her regular shopping excursions were stressful enough and by the time the holiday season came around I would usually be a basket case. Why is it that a woman has to look at everything in the store from flatware to underwear or try on 50 pairs of shoes? I like a man’s way of shopping where we go in a store make our purchase and leave.

As I think about my experience with spending money over years long pasts, my emotions are mixed. As a child I was raised in what today might be termed an upper middle class family. We certainly were not rich or poor. My father was a successful businessman that was raised in a middle class family that had experienced the setbacks of the Great Depression. Dad could afford not only the necessities but also a few luxuries. Regardless, we were not handed things just because we wanted them. A lot of that probably had to do with the way my mother was raised. Her father was a poor farm worker. Her mother was a woman in search of herself that had married at least 6 times while seeking a rich husband. My grandmother finally married and settled down with a poor cop. As a young woman my mother had worked in a cannery and as an adult she still liked to can fruits and vegetables. My dad loved to barbeque and if left to him we would have ate red meat every night. On the other hand my mom had learned how to stretch the dollar. I fondly remember the great meatloaf, casseroles, stew and hash she would make using the leftover meat from dads barbeques. I guess I am kind of getting off subject but memories sure are great.

As I was saying! As a child, mom would stretch those dollars. I was the second son, and in our family toys and clothing were passed on to me from my older brother. Usually that was ok except when it was things like a Coloring Book that had only been used once. When it came to clothes, my brother was tall and thin and I was squatty and pudgy. My brother’s pants never wore out for unlike me, he was a bookworm. When my brother outgrew a pair of pants, mom would cut the legs off to make wedges and sew them into the back of the pants so the waist would fit pudgy Terry. The work ethic that dad had instilled in me paid off. Even as an elementary school child I would look for and find ways to make extra money. I would use that money to purchase clothing and other things that I wanted and my parents would not purchase for me.

I married a beautiful girl that loved to shop and nothing could have thrilled her more than when we had a son and later a daughter, giving my wife another excuse to shop. Since I received hand-me-downs or had to work for special things, I figured my daughter could wear the clothing her brother had outgrown but my wife didn’t see it that way. Ok, maybe she was right on that one! Still, did she really need to spend so much money shopping? I remember one of our arguments where several checks had bounced. I called my young wife on it and she replied, "There were still checks in the checkbook" Ok, I should have known better, as I said she was a beautiful girl, I did not say that she knew how to do math! We learned how to compromise and while the children always had what they needed we tried not to spoil them totally rotten.

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