It was Fight or Flight or Both.
David and I were unsure of our future, as far as finances go. We had always gotten by OK. However I could not go to the store and shop or buy a new outfit or buy him clothes.
Charles had nice clothes though, We kept him in "Buster Brown" Matching sets. Some were given to us, In fact most were given to us.
Charles crib was made by my Grandpa for Pat when she was born.
that crib made its way through a lot of children.
It was not long before Charles learned to crawl over the top side and get into our bed.
The crib had one rung missing, Previous I had that turned to the wall. When I saw him doing that, (climbing over) I turned the missing piece side to the room and showed him how to get out that way. At least he was safer climbing out on the side, rather than over the top.
David went to an auction with my Mom, (she loved auctions) and came home with the filthiest cook stove you can imagine. Grease from top to bottom and general filth.
I told him, I am not touching it, This is your project.
He did too, He cleaned and scrubbed and disinfected that stove and it was Beautiful.
The stove even had a griddle in the middle. It was state of the art and very modern. We believed it was a repo, from people who did not pay bills and obviously did not clean anything up.
We had a television you had to hit on the side to make it work.
Or refrigerator was a frost free that we bought at a scratch and dent place. $180. for a nice fridge.
Our living set was from "Fingerhut" we paid $50 for two chairs and one sofa. It was teal vinyl but it was new and it was being paid at 5 a month.
Our floor was so off level, we had to put a folded piece of paper under the stereo legs to balance it up.
(Charles was often seen chewing the paper from that source.)
Our heater was a small (very small) bathroom heater.
One day Coy showed up with a bigger and more efficient heater and he even installed it.
That was a God send as Arkansas winters are pretty bad.
Coy's parting words on leaving, "Now don't have a heat stroke"
I often heated the house with the oven and the bathroom heater but a small boy needed to stay warm.
As I said, Coy was good to us.
So as time progressed, David had to pay his citation. He also had to deal with the other insurance company, because we DID NOT have insurance of any kind.
He does not quite recall the entire situation, (that amazes me as he had a computer brain, Remembering every detail)
He does recall going before a judge, which was A. R. McKenzie. Mr. Mac had no law degree but in Sheridan, everything goes. Mr. Mac was the previous school principal.
He fined David about $50.
David then dealt with the insurance agent. He was a friend from the past.
He (the agent) went to Little rock to work out the cost of the accident and our need to pay medical expenses and the car repair.
(Oh Our car, David said, "I finally called the wrecking lot to haul it away")
We had no money to fix it and the front was pretty damaged.
The insurance agent sent us the bills, $900 for one part, That was the other car damage.
$4500, that was the doctor and hospital bills.
OH MY Goodness, Now what? $40 a month, forever!!!!!!!!!!
But we paid and we paid and we paid.
Ken said he recalled when we paid one off, We were living in Happy Valley then so the year was 1978 or so.
We really can not recall. I do recall paying the first off, at $20 a month and that happened around the early 1970's.
We did see daylight at the end of the tunnel. We were hoping for more good luck to come our way.
Luck, or Blessings? We always said, "For some reason God was always blessing us and we knew not why," times were rough and money was scarce but we went to church on Sundays and every time the door was open. We had our friends, We had each other and we had Charles. A beautiful little boy that was born critically ill.
Above all this We had God in our lives.
Our first purchase after marriage was our family Bible. That too was only 25 and we paid it off at 5 a month.
Isn't that amazing?
Going from that meager beginning to over a 6 figure income in 30 years.
Then back to No Job and making ends meet anyway.
I guess you can say.
NEVER NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!!
There is a plan and we were not quitters.
That reminds me of a child's song we sang,
"Let the sun shine in,
Face it with a grin
Smiler's never lose
And frowners never win"
We allowed the sun to shine on our lives even though it seemed hopeless.
No comments:
Post a Comment