My Parents as Teenagers

I cannot imagine my parents as teenagers! Can you? I often wondered what they were like back then.

Mom was privileged to complete two years of college at Ricker in Houlton, Maine. My grandfather thought it was absurd for a girl to go to college, but she wanted to go and my grandmother was firm in seeing that it happened. Grammie scrubbed floors and ironed clothing and other odds and ends of jobs to help finance an education for my Mom. She remains (at 88) one of the most intelligent and creative people I know.

My Dad was a different story. There were only two years of high school available in Monticello, where he lived with his family. He had five sisters and no brothers. There was no money to send him away to Houlton to complete his high school. There was a Dr. Hill in Monticello who believed my Dad was gifted and who offered to pay for his education. A harsh reality of life was that the family was living in the depression era and needed the $1 a day that he made as a hired hand for a local farmer. I never heard whether he resented not being able to finish high school. I just know that I was always sad about it.

You might think $1 a day was a ridiculous income. But let me show you from Grandma Buza's journal the cost of things in the "olden days" when people were paid ten cents an hour for "yard work":

Bread at that time sold for 10 cents a loaf.
Prices in 1928 -- 2 cent stamp in U. S.
Gas 10 cents a gallon in Kansas.
1930 -- Corn 10 cents a bushel.
Eggs - 12 cents a dozen.
Hogs 5 cents lb.