Flashback Friday

Yesterday, I collected my pay stub from work and opened it up to see how much had been deposited into my bank account. Let me tell you, it was a far cry from what I earned as a child in my parents’ home. Today Linda’s asking us about money…

Prompt: How was money handled in your family when you were growing up? …Did you have an allowance? Whether received as an allowance or through other means such as gifts, when you had your “own” money, were there restrictions on how you spent it? … Did your parents tithe or give money to the church on a regular basis?

We children were responsible for doing the dishes in our home (My dad cracked that he had no need for a dishwasher–“Why, I have seven dishwashers,” he’d say.) In return for our work, if well done, we received a dime a day.

Which meant that every week, we could earn a maximum of $0.70. Ten percent was automatically deducted for tithe and ten percent was automatically deducted for savings, leaving us with a net pay of $0.56 per week. If our work performance was unsatisfactory, of course, we would earn less.

Now, even in my day (which wasn’t THAT long ago), $0.56 didn’t go far. In those days, you could still find off-brand soda for a quarter a can, but that was pretty much all we could have purchased. My parents recognized this and developed a workable solution. They purchased candy and novelties in bulk and resold them to us at cost.

A dark gray toolbox was both the store and the bank. Locked within its dark plastic walls were tubs of candy, an organizer with change, and printed off spreadsheets that itemized who had been paid what when.

We were supposed to be paid every Saturday, but we were far from consistent. Usually we’d beg Dad to open the store after several weeks and he’d open it up and pay out with quarters and dimes and pennies.

Most of the time, I promptly re-spent everything I’d earned on candy. Dum-Dum pops and Nuclear Warheads were three cents each–but the wrapped candy was never my favorite. What I really loved to get was Skittles or Runts or Boston Baked Beans, a bargain at 10 cents per 1/8 cup.

We’d bring out a cup and Dad would scoop our candy in, careful to fill each scoop exactly the same amount, lest any of us cry foul. Then we’d spend the next several hours wandering about with our cups of candy–going about our days as normal, but eating candy while we did it.

When I was in seventh grade and my sister was in eighth we asked for a raise. Actually, we wanted an allowance like the other kids we knew. My parents acquiesced and asked us to write up a budget of our needs and to submit a proposal for an allowance to them.

Anna and I carefully worked up our budget, considering the cost of makeup and movies and the occasional fast food splurge. We settled on $25 a month. 25% was for short term savings, 25% for long term savings, 10% for tithe, 5% for offerings, 35% for immediate expenses.

Mom and Dad accepted our proposal and, from then on out until we graduated high school, Anna and I received $12.50 direct deposited into our (interest bearing) checking accounts and $12.50 in cash.

Of course, we liberally supplemented our allowance all the way through with jobs done for friends and neighbors: babysitting, washing dishes, mowing lawns, cleaning houses. We actually ended up having plenty of money, considering that we really had very few expenses.

Wanna hear how other families handled money? Visit Linda and follow the links to hear some more money talk.

I groaned when Linda hinted that she’d be asking us about games this week. Games? I thought. We’ve never really been game people. And then I started thinking about it a bit more…

Prompt: Did you play many games when you were growing up? What were they? (Include outside games as well as board & card games.) Who did you generally play with? Did your entire family play games or just the kids? Were there any traditional games your family always played? What were your favorites? …

The earliest memories I have of playing games are of playing Monopoly with my dad, Anna, and Joshua on Sunday afternoons. During those days, we always had scrambled eggs and buttered toast for Sunday lunch. It was quick and easy to prepare after church. Then, once the table was cleared, we’d pull out the Monopoly board. Everyone had their favorite token, of course–but we also each had our favorite properties and favorite railroads. If I recall right, I was most fond of the light blue properties, while Anna liked the green. Maybe Joshua was into the orange ones?? I think everyone fought over Reading Railroad (all of us being young bibliophiles) and maybe over Marvins Gardens as well.

Another game I remember well is Barney and Baby Bop Memory. We older children never had any familiarity with children’s TV shows, but someone had purchased a Baby Bop board book for Grace, so she became a little Barney fan (not that she ever saw it or anything!) Another someone gave her a Barney and Baby Bop Memory game (to add to the traditional set we already owned) for Christmas one year, and we spent hours and hours playing Memory with her. Of course, the preschool Grace always did much better than the teenage older children–who were already starting to lose their powers of instant recall!

We were binge card players, playing one game until we tired of it and then moving on to the next. When I was quite young, we played Kings in the Corner–and always got into arguments over whether “slipping” was allowed (slipping your cards under a pile when there was an empty space versus putting down your cards in that empty space and then moving the pile on top.) A little later, we went crazy over “SPIT” a fast-paced multi-player game of the traditional “solitaire”. Once teenage years came, we became Pitch fans, playing round after round late into the night. And then, I can’t forget falling to sleep in the bottom bunk as Anna and Grace, probably aged 16 and 6, played Rummy in the bunk above.

When we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s, we always played Phase 10 or Skip Bo with Grandma and the cousins. If the group of cousins ranged older, we’d play Phase 10. If the group of cousins ranged younger, we’d play Skip Bo. And then, at some point, Grandma would pull out the Scrabble board on its Lazy Susan and would challenge one of her daughters to a game. They’d gladly agree–and gladly be schooled by my Grandma’s master skills!

Why did I think we weren’t game people, I wonder? I’ve written my requisite 500 words and I still haven’t touched on the boys’ board games. Union Pacific. Risk. Squad Leader. I haven’t mentioned the party games. Outburst. Pictionary. Guesstures. I haven’t mentioned today’s games. Sequence. Pit. Mexican Train. Pinochle. Settlers of Catan. The bean game. I haven’t mentioned the rest of our childrens’ games. Dominoes. Backgammon. Yahtzee. Chutes and Ladders. Gee-I haven’t even mentioned POP-IT!! (Trouble)

And then, of course, there are the outdoor games. Kick the Can in the dark. Softball in the park. Hopscotch (taught by the eight-plus-month pregnant Mom!). Making Hay While the Sun Shines. Tornado. The list goes on and on.

What was that I said about us not being game people?

Sorry, folks.

I lied.

Visit Linda and follow the links to see some more game-time stories!

I remember the neighbor kids’ toys better than I remember my own, which makes this week’s flashback…different.

Prompt: What toys do you remember from your childhood? … Did you have to “get permission” to play at a friend’s house, or were you and your friends back and forth between houses all the time? … What were the “fad” or “must-have” toys of your generation? Did you parents buy them? Was there a toy you always wanted and never got to have?

Don’t get me wrong. My family had plenty of toys. We had duplos and legos and tinker toys and waffle blocks and lincoln logs and dolls. Mostly imaginative toys, building toys, things that we children played with together, inventing dozens of things.

But what I remember most is our friends’ toys. We had a neighbor who we played with on occasion. She and her siblings had a whole room that was positively stuffed with toys. She had all the toys we didn’t. My Little Pony. Barbies. Cabbage Patch Dolls. Her brother had GI Joes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Transformers. The little sister had all sorts of big name children’s stuff (that I didn’t pay much attention to.) The room was absolutely stuffed with toys. When all the toys were in use, the room was literally knee deep in toys–all the toys the kids of my generation were clamoring over.

And mostly, I pitied my friend.

She had a room stuffed with all the best toys the world had to offer–but she played with them all alone.

Her brother was older and he played with his toys. Her sister was younger, she played with her toys. Her parents worked in a factory and were either gone at work or sleeping whenever the kids were at home.

She had all the playTHINGS a child could want–but none of the playMATES I treasured.

I had toys, yes–but they aren’t what I remember. What I remember is taking bicycle rides with the whole family to the park across the railroad tracks. I remember us kids making dashed lines and solid lines along the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk–and enforcing the passing rules. I remember making a doll stroller out of Tinkertoys with my sister. I remember the “tent” mom made us kids out of scraps of fabric. We spent hours under that table draped with its tent, lowering and raising the window flaps, pretending to be explorers or pioneers or even just homemakers.

She had a roomful of toys to play with. I had a houseful of people to play with.

My lot was certainly the better one.

Visit Linda and follow the links to hear other people’s toy memories.