4 - Early School
Jonathan: All right, mom, it is April 26, 2025. And glad to be talking with you this Saturday morning.
Today, we’re going to talk about elementary and middle school topics, things that you remember from school and some other things about your family during that time period. So everything that we talk about today is going to be up to but not including high school. OK. OK. Yeah. So and I’ve got some leading questions, but we just wait. This can go any direction you want. But thinking of elementary and middle school, what was your first school called?
Laura: Forth. OK.
I went to a preschool in Philadelphia before we moved to New Jersey. But I think that that was an Amish school, and I don’t know what the name of it was. But when we moved to New Jersey, I began at 4th Street Christian School, and I was there through grade six. So kindergarten was probably Philadelphia, and I think that first grade was the beginning of 4th Street Christian School.
Jonathan: Okay.
Laura: It was, it was at the bottom of the hill, I’m guessing maybe 10 blocks away from my house. So we walked down the hill to school and up the hill home. And it was right behind my father’s church.
The playground I remember was all fenced in and the building of the church was one side of the playground and the other side, I think, fenced in and not concrete, but paved black. I can remember that. So I think that if there was, there certainly were swings and slides and that sort of thing, but I don’t remember using them. And I do think that a ball was a part of playground activity just because the surface was so hard. And when the bell rang and we all lined up, we had to go to the basement of the school. And each grade had their place in line.
And the principal’s name was Mr. Boss, and he was old and short and scary.
And he always stood underneath a sign which was the janitor’s room, but there was a paddle posted on the wall right above the door, sort of as a hint that the discipline was prominent. I never heard of any being paddled and I never was paddled myself.
The other thing is our line had to be straight and quiet before we were dismissed to climb the stairs to our rooms.
Jonathan: Can you recall about how many people would be in your class?
Laura: I’m guessing a large number. I’m thinking at least 25.
Jonathan: OK, OK. And you said this earlier. You walked about 10 blocks down the hill to your school. And in your earliest years, even before your sister was around, would your mom or your dad accompany you? Or did you pretty quickly just do that walk by yourself?
Laura: I walked alone.
Jonathan: OK.
Laura: However. It wasn’t very long and Connie and I were walking it together, so I must have been maybe six and a half and she was five or four. Yeah, I. Yeah, actually, there’s three years difference between us. However. I have a much clearer memory of walking that with three of us.
Jonathan: That would be your brother Ted.
Laura: Yep. And that street was called Halden Avenue. And it went all the way from the top of the hill to into the city of Patterson.
We would take that’s the road we would take to go to the Susquehanna Railroad Station, which was at the bottom. And I do remember this, that there was a section of about three blocks that were little shops that no longer were open. And there were gypsies living in these shops. So when we’d walk past them, They didn’t have curtains over the windows of the front of the shop where a display of property would have been. So it was always a mystery to me who these people were and where they came from. but my parents told me they were gypsies. That’s what they called them.
Jonathan: And were they like forbidden? Like was it there’s an element of danger or just mystery about it?
Laura: Well, they were unknown. Their kids didn’t go to schools. And I think they easily moved. So I think that the Inhabitants didn’t stay steady in that area. And I don’t know how they arranged rent. I have no idea. But obviously it was a very poor community and a very easily moving community.
Jonathan: Interesting. You would think of them as almost squatters today, but it sounds like maybe not. Maybe they were paying rent to stay there.
Laura: I have no idea. I have no idea, but I know, but I do know that where they stayed were previous shops that had to close because there wasn’t enough business.
Jonathan: Okay. It kind of gives me.
Laura: And also, and also you could see all the way into where they lived because there were no curtains over the big windows of the shop.
Jonathan: Now I’m curious that you said you more vividly remember making that walk, the three of you, with your brother Ted in tow. Any other thoughts, reflections, or memories about that?
Laura: None. None.
Jonathan: OK. You were looking out for your little brother, I’m sure.
Laura: Well, I don’t recall having to be protective in any way.
Jonathan: OK. So any recollections about, like, remember waking up on school days.
Was there a ritual that you had, breakfast, and chores that you had to do before you went to school?
Laura: We had to make our own bed. And then my dad was the cook. And he had this theory that everybody had to have one egg a day. So that’s where, over the years, I came to hate eggs and I don’t eat eggs to this day.
But he would make breakfast. And I can see him standing. He had one of these white aprons that had the bar around the neck, you know, and you tied it in the back. And he would stack the dishes. Mom sometimes would do them. And we often, I remember drying the dishes before we left the house.
Jonathan: So that sink was cleaned up. You had breakfast and you clean breakfast dishes before you went to school, it sounds like.
Laura: That’s right.
Jonathan: Okay. And
Jonathan: You packed your lunch or was there a cafeteria in elementary and middle school?
Laura: My dad always made the lunch. My dad and mom together made the lunch and they were very similar. Always peanut butter sandwiches, apples, not anything to drink.
Maybe a store bought cookie. My mom didn’t make batches of cookies. If she did, she made fudge and chocolate chip cookies, but those were stored and handed out sparingly.
Jonathan: I’ve had your mom’s fudge, hard packed. It was really dense. It wasn’t a creamy fudge. It was more of a, yeah, that was really good.
Laura: Yep. It’s a very, I have, I’ve made the recipe a number of times, but you have to make that recipe with a thermometer, a liquid thermometer that you stick in the liquid because at a certain point you take it off and start whipping it and it, because it thickens too fast.
So it’s a very temperamental recipe and I haven’t made it in a while, but she was known for her. lunch and it was good.
Jonathan: So you would you would carry like a paper bag lunch down. Yes, 10 blocks down the hill and pretty predictable kind of what was in it. What what would have been a special treat in your lunch back then?
Laura: I I don’t remember, but I do remember this that Grandpa Gezon gave us lunch boxes and so after a little while it was plastic and I don’t remember that it was. a colored figure on the outside. I remember it was red and it was a box. And so I didn’t always have a lunch box. And I don’t know why, I don’t remember using it when we got to Grand Rapids. But I do remember, Grandpa Gezon gave us things in in uh presence during those days things that my parents would never have given to me so um for example a Shirley Temple doll that was a very fancy doll that my mother would never have bought and um of course I never I never remember my Grandmother, she died before I was born. But in Agnes, I do recall already then.
Jonathan: OK. Wow. So that’s interesting. You talked last week about Grandpa Gezon gifting you with a blue bike. But it sounds like he was really looking out after you.
Laura: Well, Grandpa Gezon was pretty wealthy. at the time. I think that over the years when he ended up closing his grocery store and the only business he had was he had a couple of apartments that he rented, his wealth dwindled quite quickly so that when he died, he didn’t have much. But during those business years when he had his own store, we considered him to be wealthy. And I think that he helped my parents financially sometimes. I think his gifts were generous.
Jonathan: That’s neat to hear about. OK, so now back to, this is in Patterson, any recollections of how you spent your recess? Some mention of a ball. You have a circle of friends that you recall?
Laura: I had two girls that I I maintained that friendship long after we moved to Grand Rapids. Nancy Rose was the first one, and Lois, I can’t think of her last name, we three sort of stuck together. But I don’t remember anything we did on the playground. games were ever supplied to us. There was nothing that we could take out for recess. So I guess we did a lot of talking and just maybe got on the swings.
Jonathan: OK. When you think back to this is, again, elementary, middle school, how did you feel about doing schoolwork? What was your maybe reflections on your favorite classes or topics that you really enjoyed?
Laura: Well, I do not remember bringing home homework. In New Jersey, I don’t ever recall doing homework in my house after the school hours.
I do remember that very early on, I was required to write little essays. And they became longer and more detailed. And I became good at that so that when I got to Grand Rapids and junior high school, I started entering some children’s essay contests. And I don’t remember what the subjects were about, but writing then was established in my life. And I used that skill a long time. I used it when I was teaching. I’ve had things published all over the place.
Jonathan: That’s interesting to hear that it started so early. Can you attribute it like either your love for reading or your love for writing to a teacher or a parent?
Laura: No, the only teacher that I remember in New Jersey was the one with the wooden arm that I was afraid of. And that must have been grade two, it was early, early. And where I was required to write essays, I think that we were required to write paragraphs and opinions and descriptions pretty early, third, fourth grade. And that continued. I, and it was part of school that a lot of my friends were, they hated it and I liked it. I liked writing.
Jonathan: I’ve seen the interest in, and Leah in particular, her interest in writing, I’ve always thought evolved from her love for reading. And I wonder for you, did your family really reinforce that? Maybe did you go to a lending library or were those sorts of things available to you?
Laura: I remember the library in Grand Rapids, and it was a little storefront in Galewood. It wasn’t much of a library at all, but I went there often. I remember walking down 8th Street to that little library, and I’m sure that the classics
I showed you a favorite children’s book that I had, but I don’t remember other children’s books specifically, but certainly starting to read things like Little Women, Treasure Island, the classics that were required for book reports. That happened in Grand Rapids almost immediately.
Jonathan: So would that have been more high school years?
Laura: No, that’s seventh grade already. Seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, I did a lot of reading of classical books. And it was never group. It was always single assignments. And often you had a choice from a list.
Jonathan: And you would pull that book out of the school library?
Laura: Either that or the, often it was not available in that little library. So very often they were available right in the classroom where I was assigned.
Jonathan: Okay. Okay. So would you, at that age, would you describe yourself as bookish or somebody that loved to read?
Laura: No. By then I was, I was, playing the piano, taking lessons. That took up quite a bit of my time. From the time I moved to Grand Rapids, I had started piano already in New Jersey. I’ll never forget that teacher because she had a manicure scissor setting on one of the sides of the piano. If she heard a click, click, click on my fingernails, she’d cut them. And to this day, I’ve never had long fingernails. Of course, that applied to Oregon as well. But I remember that that was very intimidating that when I sat down on the bench, there was the scissors.
Jonathan: Yeah. Mom, I want you to remember that thought and share it in a future conversation, because I got a whole bunch of questions related to music that might make sense for us to put all that together.
So my sense is you did pretty good in school. You got pretty good grades. You were not a behavior challenge for a teacher, is it true?
Laura: I got A’s and B’s.
Jonathan: Yeah. Well, did you ever Were you naughty in class ever? Were you ever get in trouble?
Laura: I think that if I was ever reprimanded, it’s for talking too much.
Jonathan: OK. Well, good. All right. So describe a triumphant school moment that will always stay with you. What about a moment? And if not that, maybe a moment of disappointment or humiliation. Are there a couple of memories that come to mind again? That’s for elementary and middle school time period.
Laura: I really can’t recall anything specific.
I was very aware when we got to Grand Rapids that my father was in a dispute with the school board about tuition from parents who did not attend a church like a Christian Reformed Church. My dad was minister of a Reformed in America church. which did not have collections for Christian schools ever. And so the tuition charge my father was much more than the tuition charged to any families who went to those churches where there was a collective support. And my dad was working very hard to promote Christian education and it happened often in his sermons and in his discussions and He wanted them to realize he was a spokesman for them and There there shouldn’t be this huge charge for his four kids tuition paying full costs with no breaks when Southwest Christian would not listen to that argument. I only went there one year so seventh grade
I think we came kind of in the middle of sixth, but when I went to eighth grade, we moved to Seymour. Now this created a huge transportation issue. There was a crosstown bus that I could pick up at the corner of Clyde Park and Burton Street. However, and I’m sure there was a very good discount. I don’t even remember paying to get on that bus, but I never had the bus ride to school and again home. So either my dad took us in the morning and then if that was the case, he dropped us off right at school. If I took the bus, the bus dropped us off at the corner of Eastern and Burton Street and we would have to walk six blocks or so to Seymour. If my dad picked us up after school that was much better than taking the bus home because taking the bus home we’d have to walk that six blocks to Burton Street then get off at Burton and Clyde Park and walk another two blocks home. So We really liked dad to provide the transportation. And that was a hassle for him. But because he was a pastor and not on a 40 hour a week job, he was able to provide that transportation. But that cost him a lot. And that was a public statement to him that His promoting Christian schools was not appreciated by the Christian schools, at least at Granville. Now, because he changed to Seymour, it seems to me he must have gotten a break in the cost of tuition. I don’t know any other reason why he would choose to send us there and not to Granville Avenue. But I do know that he had a conflict with the board of Granville Avenue School. And after one year, we left there.
Jonathan: So both the schools that you mentioned were Christian schools. Seymour was a Christian school. It was just a different one than you. Yes. OK.
Laura: Yes. And I don’t think that there was a national union of Christian schools at that time yet. So each community had their own policies.
Jonathan: Interesting. Well, it’s fun for me to think of you walking down Eastern, because we know that area of town so well. But as a seventh grade, eighth grader, ninth grader, you were walking down those six blocks down Eastern to Seymour.
Laura: Yep. And that group of friends that I made at Seymour are my friends to this day. We went through high school together. In college, we kind of split up because everybody did different career pursuits. We never, Petey Batts, Rosemary Vrone, Mary Vandenberg, and Lois Hollomans, those were my friends at Seymour and continued in the high school. I have a funny memory of Seymour Junior High. In those days, uh,
When we had, we were in, every once in a while we had a overnighter at somebody’s house.
And my mother never invited any of my friends to stay overnight at my house, but Mary Vandenberg’s mother, they lived on Deming, which is just off of Eastern Avenue. And every time I ride by that corner, I laugh to think of this. One night, we all went in our pajamas to the corner of Deming and Eastern Avenue. And we had our picture taken in our pajamas. And we thought that that was the most daring public thing we’d ever dare to do. And I still, I can see the picture of me, of all of us standing against the light pole at night in our pajamas. And that was one of those sleepovers. Now a sleepover at night was a really special thing. And I was so happy that I was always invited because Rosemary took a turn. Petey took a turn. Mary took a turn.
Lois didn’t, but she lived, I think she was more of a farm girl. But at any rate, those three had their sleepovers and I was so happy to be a part of it. That was probably the high point of my junior high years were those parties.
Jonathan: And they would happen a couple of times a year or something like that. How often would something like that happen?
Laura: Oh, at least three times a school year.
You’d go right from school there. You’d eat supper there, play cards, toward the end watch TV. But being included when I wasn’t a hostess ever was a gift to me.
Jonathan: That’s neat. That’s neat. And that would be Friday night and then Saturday. You get picked up by your parents or something like that.
Laura: Is that? Yes.
Jonathan: OK, good. I’ve heard Mary Mandenberg’s name so many times over the years. Do you have other memories of her during from from that time period?
Laura: Well, Mary had lunch with me last Wednesday. And what’s interesting is This year, it is the 70th anniversary of our senior high school graduation. And so there’s going to be a reunion. And I understand that they think about 90 students are still alive today. But at any rate, once school stopped, we hardly saw or heard from each other all summer. This was a school year friendship.
Jonathan: Got you.
All right, so we’re going to pivot a little bit. And you already mentioned that less than you did a lot of time reading, you played piano. And we’re going to circle back to that in a future call. But can you think of other things that you did in your free time back at that age, like non-school related? other hobbies you had not related to piano, games that you played with your friends or your siblings?
Laura: Well, we had one of those little metal frames where you bought these stretchy rubber band ovals and you made pot holders.
And so that was a craft that I did. I don’t think I started knitting or crocheting until high school. But you had to buy those little stretchy things. And so I would only have a limited number of napkins that I could make. They were nice and they were strong. So years later, when I started teaching crafts, Instead of buying those little loops, we would take old socks, slice them across so you’d have a loop. And I taught the kids how to make potholders from old socks that we cut up. And I could not find the metal frames. nor did I have the funds to buy them for 12 or 15 kids in that class. So we made a frame on a heavy cardboard where we cut the loops on either side. I don’t know if you can picture that, but at any rate, you would stretch the loop, hook it on one side over and hook it on the other side. And then after you had them all lined up, then you’d go the other way and go in, out, in, out, in, out, you know? So I think that making pot holders was probably my first experience of crafting. My mother didn’t do any kinds of sewing or crafting. And I don’t even remember yarn or supplies of sewing being in our house. I’m sure my mother had the men. But I didn’t really pick up all of that, which has taken a big part of my life since I started it. But nothing of junior high or early elementary.
Jonathan: That was not a thing that you shared with the Holloman friend or Vandenberg friend that’s not part of your recollection of times back then? No.
Laura: OK. No.
Jonathan: Got you. Other things relating to school? We’re going to pivot a little bit with some other lines of question. But are there other things about school that you’d like to share?
Laura: Well, I am sure that at least once a year there would be a program. Now, at a program, we didn’t in those days have a music teacher. So the classroom teacher would teach us a song or two. And also it was really popular to memorize poems in those days. So a program might include something like that. And at such an occasion, they also would display any of our drawings, our art stuff.
Jonathan: This would be like an open house, a Friday evening where all the parents were welcome to come to the gymnasium. I mean, is it something like that?
Laura: Yes, yes.
Yes. So I think we did have an art teacher. But I can’t recall going to art classes. Maybe the teachers covered that, too. Surely in early L they did. Maybe by the time we got to Seymour, we had an art teacher. I believe we did, but never in New Jersey.
Jonathan: Okay. Well, were there, you’re talking about like a art night or open house at school. Were there other clubs that you were a member of in school or related to your church or just a community club of some sort?
Laura: No, in those days, Catechism was separate from Sunday school. Catechism, I recently found the little book that we used. But Catechism was a class every week, usually taught by the pastor or elders. And it required memorization.
And that was not a club, but it was a weekly meeting.
Jonathan: OK. Do you have fond memories of Kavika’s in class, Mom?
Laura: No.
Jonathan: OK. Just checking in with you on that one. thinking of the geography a little bit between where you lived in Grand Rapids and where some of your best friends lived. Would you get on your bike and go visit them or?
Laura: No, no, because most of my friends lived near Seymour and I already had a bus my way there to get to school. So when I got home, I was very removed from where they were.
Jonathan: Yeah.
Laura: Go ahead.
Jonathan: I’m sorry.
Laura: I biked to the library. I biked to Galewood to the library. And we had a little path that went along Plaster Creek behind A3 Forum Church, which was a nice place to bike besides the big parking lot area. But didn’t cross many streets or surely not busy streets with my bike. And I think I rode with probably Teddy and Connie, not ever with friends. They were much farther away than we lived.
Jonathan: OK, OK.
All right, so I’m going to pivot a little bit to family vacations again in that in that time frame up through, but not up to including high school. Did you the fall breaks or the Christmas breaks? Would you guys do something special or were there special?
Laura: No, because my father was a pastor and so Christmas, Easter, spring breaks were always heavy church service obligations. So we didn’t do anything then. But in the summer, we always went to Grand Rapids and stayed within Agnes.
So that would be maybe 10 days, not even. And in the meantime, my parents started watching for a cottage so that they really didn’t like having to stay within Agnes with all the kids. And yet they did like coming to Grand Rapids and seeing relatives. So early on, they ended up buying the cottage at Stickney Ridge. In those days, there was
poor electric and water supplies. We had an icebox, not a refrigerator. So I remember a man coming down a very large staircase from where the parking lot was to where the beach was, was a long hill. And it had many eight steps of landing, six steps of landing. And this man would come carrying blocks of ice for at least six people in our little community. Now, when they actually bought that cottage, I’m thinking it was just prior to our moving to eight three formed. Yes, fifth grade.
I think that’s that’s close. And so that’s where I spent my summers. And so if dad had to go back to work, mom and the rest of us stayed at the cottage. And I still see that Iceman bring in big blocks of ice for the ice chest. The other thing was there was a fire a little metal place where we burned wood for heat. It’s the only way we had heat in that place.
And I have funny memories of staying at the cottage.
One was the Kirby’s lived across the street, and the Deuces lived right next door. The Deuces were from someplace south. And their children were all younger than my siblings.
And my two brothers would catch butterflies
And then they would sell them to the Kirby boys for 10 cents and they would hand them to them. And if they didn’t have a jar or something to put it in more than once, the kids lost the butterfly before they ever got back to their house. So I remember my brothers selling and catching butterflies. I also remember my selling potholders. And where I sold them was in the trailer park at the state park. We walked to the state park often, and then we would walk out on the pier. That was a very regular little trip that we did. In the meantime, the Haik family, Dr. Haik, they bought a cottage half a mile south of us. And the Hague kids became very good friends of ours. By then we had, now this is junior high years yet, we had a raft that you had to blow up.
And I think it belonged to the Hakes because I only remember going down to their cottage to play on the raft. It was yellow. I can remember it clearly.
And they remained our friends all through high school and even beyond. There was one summer when my parents My parents loved to travel, and they did Europe very often. And on a couple of those trips, they took Ted and Con and Paul. But on one occasion, Ted and Connie were probably working, had jobs, or something in the summer. And Paul was loose. They asked us to keep Paul for a month. And this was when Teddy Jim was baby.
And I still remember clearly that Teddy Jim always, when he heard an airplane, he’d point up. So when he was in the playpen at the cottage, and a motorboat, and there were plenty of them going past on the water, He thought that was an airplane. He’d have his finger up like this all the time. And uncle Paul thought that was so funny. So Paul and Teddy Jim had a lot of fun together during that month that I took Paul while my parents went traveling.
Jonathan: Paul would have been in his early twenties or late teens.
Laura: Yeah, late teens. I think he wasn’t in college yet.
Jonathan: Okay.
So you guys had a college at Sydney Ridge before you moved to Michigan by a year or maybe two, and then you kept that, like how many years do you think you went to that college?
Laura: All of my high school years and into college.
They still had it when Bob and I got married.
Uncle Dick had built us a house and Bob lost his job. He wasn’t working. There was a strange time. He would leave as though he was going to work for two months. He went every day and the truth was he didn’t come home with a paycheck and Uncle Dick was helping us. Uncle Dick and Aunt Pauline helped us repeatedly. When it became apparent we couldn’t afford that house that he had built on Poinsettia, my parents said that we could live at the cottage.
And that meant that Bob commuted. He got a job working at a grocery store.
My parents sold that cottage not long after that.
I never remembered taking Connie or Betsy to the college. Teddy Jim went there, but that’s all.
Jonathan: Okay.
So. But clearly, good memories. You said you played canasta, card games, and a lot of time in the water probably. Other things that stand out for you for fun things that you did over the summertime?
Laura: Yeah. OK. Along the channel, there was a skating rink. And we would go there on the weekend one night. And there was also a Pronto Pups store, which is still there. And boy, that was a treat to go get Pronto Pups.
Jonathan: All right. So other than at the cottage, did your family take road trips together? Did you ever travel around the US or anything like that?
Laura: I don’t remember. We did New York City often. I don’t remember any trips except driving to Michigan.
Jonathan: Okay, so then closer to home, were there restaurants or parks or places that you vividly remember, special places that were close to your home that you went to with your family?
Laura: No.
I really didn’t go to restaurants until
I was in college. They didn’t.
The only time I remember in the summertime when Dad preached and Mom stayed at the college, Dad and I would drive to Grand Rapids Saturday night and he would preach and I would play the organ. So we would go to Howard Johnson’s. And I always felt when we walked in there, like, let’s get in here quick before anybody sees us, because going to a restaurant on a Sunday was a no-no.
So that memory of restaurants is clear in my head. And that would be just dad and me.
Jonathan: And that would be Sunday lunch between the morning and the evening service.
Laura: That’s right.
Jonathan: You had to eat. Would you eat? Go ahead.
Laura: There wouldn’t be much food in the house because we were really living in the cottage most of the summer.
Jonathan: Sure. Sure. That must’ve been a special, just your, that quality time with your dad. That must’ve been really neat, a neat thing for you.
Laura: Well, you see, I became my father’s partner for many, many things. Every wedding, every funeral, when there was a reception after where it would be him and me, my mother never went to any of those things. And if it was Sunday services, I’d play two services. So we’d take a nap Sunday afternoon, but he wouldn’t cook. We would go somewhere for a meal after the morning service. So I did a lot of things with just dad and me. And I was really taking my mother’s place in her, in his church community. Sure.
Jonathan: Well, I’m just thinking of the two of you out for Sunday. He’s just preached. You’ve just played Oregon. You’re sitting across the table waiting for your food. What kinds of things would you talk about with your dad?
Laura: I don’t know.
I don’t know.
Jonathan: Would you primarily listen or was it give and take in your conversation?
Laura: I’m sure it was give and take.
I don’t know what the conversations were.
Jonathan: Yeah. But is it a fond memory, those sorts of times together?
Laura: Oh, yes, absolutely. And of course, then there was the drive back and forth to Grand Haven. So we did spend a lot of time, just the two of us.
Jonathan: Yeah. Well, you’re driving down the road. Are you listening to the radio or is there banter going the whole time?
Laura: He never had the radio on in the car. So I guess it would be maybe a little conversation.
Jonathan: All right. You doing OK?
Laura: Yep.
Jonathan: All right. So I’ve got two other topics that we could cover. Money and allowances is one topic. And fears and worries is a second topic. You game for a couple of questions along those lines?
Laura: OK. Yes, there was an allowance, but I don’t remember what it was. It might’ve been like 25 cents a week.
But I had a savings account at the bank.
And when we helped, particularly the janitor during the Tula festivals, and got paid by him. That was about the only other source of money that I had.
Often we were required to put it in our bank accounts. I rarely got to spend a nickel at a candy store, and sometimes I snubbed it. I wasn’t allowed to, but somehow I spent a nickel at the candy store. And that was a big deal because for nickel, you could get, you’d have to have a bag to hold everything because everything was a penny.
Jonathan: So that was devious or mischievous. You’re, you’re doing that, right?
Laura: That was, Oh yeah.
Jonathan: Would not have been gone over well with mom and dad.
Laura: Yep. They were very, very frugal and they taught us to be and I have been that way my whole life. That’s why I’ve got as much saved now that I do.