(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)
I trust each of you had a Merry Christmas and Santa was good to you. We have moved around so much in the past several months we wondered if Santa was going to find us. Thanks to friends and family, who obviously told Santa where we were, I don‘t think he reads the blog, but who knows, we had a good Christmas. Anyway, we are grateful that his sleigh and reindeer didn’t topple our trailer over, but it sure sounded like a train arriving. Oh, that was a train! One passes by about every 15 minutes or so where we are. The track is about 1.5 miles away, but with the open desert we can see them pass and hear the rumble.
We enjoyed Christmas dinner with the many other campers here at Augie’s RV Park. You see a picture here of part of the group. You may even recognize the lady in the center with a red shirt. We had lots of food to eat and fellow-campers to talk to. There was so much food that we had to do the “dinner thing” again the next day to try and eat it all up. There was still food left over when we finished the second effort. You know there was a lot of food because we did second and third helpings the first time around. The second picture is of the moon rising over the campground. The house you see is the campground owner’s.
As I let you know last week, yesterday, December 28th was our 50th wedding anniversary, so we figured we’d do something a little different and went to Phoenix (135 miles roundtrip). We had a good Italian lunch, courtesy of some dear friends (you know who you are), shopped around for a while. We left home early and didn’t get back until after dark, which at this time of year is not all that late. We enjoyed the day and got our monthly grocery shopping done to-boot.
The year we got married, 1957, was not only famous for our marriage, but was an interesting year in history as well. The Russians launched “Suptnik,” the first man-made satellite; Dwight Eisenhower is inaugurated for a second term as President and Dr. Seuss published “The Cat in the Hat,” a classic in children’s literature. Ted Williams signs a $100,000 contract, becoming the highest paid baseball player and the Milwaukee Braves (later to become the Atlanta Braves) won the World Series Championship. It was the year of birth for some notable “show-biz” people like Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Reiser, Gloria Estefan, Vanna White and Donny Osmond. The favorite music of the year was “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley, “Diana” by Paul Anka and “Chances Are” by Johnny Mathis.
1957 seemed to be a less expense era with milk at $1.00 a gallon, eggs at 28 cents a dozen, bread at 19 cents a loaf and coffee at 90 cents per pound. Cheap you say! Well, I guess it is all relative since the average yearly income was only $4,594. But gasoline was 24 cents a gallon, a postage stamp was 3 cents, the average rent was $90.00 per month. A new car cost $2,157 and a new house was $12,225. You could buy a whole year’s tuition to Harvard University for $1,000; compare that to about $40,000 per semester today. I remember sitting around with others at lunch time where I worked in 1953 talking about the possibility of retiring in luxury with $10,000 per year. Wow! A minimum wage job earns more than that a year today. Some luxury!
Since we are stationary for a while, with the sight-seeing done, we had to figure out other avenues for entertainment. Of course, there is always TV, but that gets too much at times. To help pass the time we brought along a few jigsaw puzzles. We put the puzzle out on a felt cloth that can be rolled on a tube to keep the pieces in place until it is unrolled again. We put this “roll” beside a lounge chair under a window. The other day we got it out to work on it again. When it was unrolled we found some of the pieces wet and separating the front from the back. We wondered why this was so, until we looked under the window where it had been laying. Yep, a big wet spot. Not only had water been leaking in, it was still leaking in. What to do!
I trust each of you had a Merry Christmas and Santa was good to you. We have moved around so much in the past several months we wondered if Santa was going to find us. Thanks to friends and family, who obviously told Santa where we were, I don‘t think he reads the blog, but who knows, we had a good Christmas. Anyway, we are grateful that his sleigh and reindeer didn’t topple our trailer over, but it sure sounded like a train arriving. Oh, that was a train! One passes by about every 15 minutes or so where we are. The track is about 1.5 miles away, but with the open desert we can see them pass and hear the rumble.
We enjoyed Christmas dinner with the many other campers here at Augie’s RV Park. You see a picture here of part of the group. You may even recognize the lady in the center with a red shirt. We had lots of food to eat and fellow-campers to talk to. There was so much food that we had to do the “dinner thing” again the next day to try and eat it all up. There was still food left over when we finished the second effort. You know there was a lot of food because we did second and third helpings the first time around. The second picture is of the moon rising over the campground. The house you see is the campground owner’s.
As I let you know last week, yesterday, December 28th was our 50th wedding anniversary, so we figured we’d do something a little different and went to Phoenix (135 miles roundtrip). We had a good Italian lunch, courtesy of some dear friends (you know who you are), shopped around for a while. We left home early and didn’t get back until after dark, which at this time of year is not all that late. We enjoyed the day and got our monthly grocery shopping done to-boot.
The year we got married, 1957, was not only famous for our marriage, but was an interesting year in history as well. The Russians launched “Suptnik,” the first man-made satellite; Dwight Eisenhower is inaugurated for a second term as President and Dr. Seuss published “The Cat in the Hat,” a classic in children’s literature. Ted Williams signs a $100,000 contract, becoming the highest paid baseball player and the Milwaukee Braves (later to become the Atlanta Braves) won the World Series Championship. It was the year of birth for some notable “show-biz” people like Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Reiser, Gloria Estefan, Vanna White and Donny Osmond. The favorite music of the year was “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley, “Diana” by Paul Anka and “Chances Are” by Johnny Mathis.
1957 seemed to be a less expense era with milk at $1.00 a gallon, eggs at 28 cents a dozen, bread at 19 cents a loaf and coffee at 90 cents per pound. Cheap you say! Well, I guess it is all relative since the average yearly income was only $4,594. But gasoline was 24 cents a gallon, a postage stamp was 3 cents, the average rent was $90.00 per month. A new car cost $2,157 and a new house was $12,225. You could buy a whole year’s tuition to Harvard University for $1,000; compare that to about $40,000 per semester today. I remember sitting around with others at lunch time where I worked in 1953 talking about the possibility of retiring in luxury with $10,000 per year. Wow! A minimum wage job earns more than that a year today. Some luxury!
Since we are stationary for a while, with the sight-seeing done, we had to figure out other avenues for entertainment. Of course, there is always TV, but that gets too much at times. To help pass the time we brought along a few jigsaw puzzles. We put the puzzle out on a felt cloth that can be rolled on a tube to keep the pieces in place until it is unrolled again. We put this “roll” beside a lounge chair under a window. The other day we got it out to work on it again. When it was unrolled we found some of the pieces wet and separating the front from the back. We wondered why this was so, until we looked under the window where it had been laying. Yep, a big wet spot. Not only had water been leaking in, it was still leaking in. What to do!
I knew that it would do no good to try and caulk the window with it still wet and water coming in. I needed a temporary fix until it dried enough to hold caulk. The light bulb came on over my head (you know how it is in the comic-strip) so I got a piece of gum from a pack and put it in my mouth. You have guessed already what I had in mind, haven’t you? Well I chewed for a while, removed the gum from my mouth, made a little rope shape from the gum and stuck it over the leak in the window. Don’t laugh! It worked! I did nothing more to the window for about a week, then fixed it properly with caulk. What is it about necessity being the mother of invention? I guess it is.
A new year will be upon us pretty soon. We have been on the road now for seven months, and still enjoy the adventure. Soon I will get our records together and see how we have faired in the expense department during this time. Is living in our “old house” or on-the-road more expensive? We’ll let you know how it breaks down. In the meantime, we wish you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.
A new year will be upon us pretty soon. We have been on the road now for seven months, and still enjoy the adventure. Soon I will get our records together and see how we have faired in the expense department during this time. Is living in our “old house” or on-the-road more expensive? We’ll let you know how it breaks down. In the meantime, we wish you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.
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