Becoming a Trustee Was My Destiny

I believe that my frugality was established at a very early age and I offer these examples:

As a kid, I couldn’t afford to go down to the dime store and buy a toy gun. Nope; when the other neighbor kids and I played “Army”, we used sticks for guns and apples for grenades.

You didn’t use just any stick. It had to resemble a rifle, so you searched for a stick that was wider at one end to resemble the stock and narrow at the other end to resemble the barrel. It had to be at least three feet long, but not too long. You didn’t want to be accused of having a musket!

The “pistol” had to be short and curved at one end for the grip and your holster was your pocket. You had to remember to take it out before you sat down or risk a serious injury!

The apples that were used as “grenades” could not be thrown. They had to be “lobbed”. Anyone who watched “Combat” on TV knows the technique.

To “motorize” our bicycles, we used a clothespin and baseball card that would touch the spokes to make the sound. It was sweet!

Better still; we would buy the long balloons, inflate them to half-full and then tie them on the inside of the fork, so that it would rub against the spokes. I swear that it sounded like a ’49 Pan Head!

Wiffle Ball was another one where you would show your ingenuity; not so much to save money-that was a given-but, in the heat of battle, you didn’t want to stop the game, if you cracked the wiffle ball. So, you would tape up the ball with either electrical or masking tape. Duct tape had not been invented yet. Because the ball was now heavier than the bat, you would crack the bat and give it the same treatment as the ball. Tape saved many a close wiffle ball game!

When I got my first car, could I afford chrome wheels? No way; but I could afford a can of aluminum silver paint and four Baby Moon hubcaps, so for $22, I had “chrome” wheels.

To get the tires to shine, you would either spray them with high gloss black paint or do what I did. I would “borrow” some of Dad’s brake fluid and wipe it on the tires. They looked like new!

How many of you wore a T-shirt backwards under your V-neck sweaters? I know I did. I couldn’t afford a dickie (see Eddie in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” for example) much less a mock turtleneck. I would simply take one T-shirt, cut out the “Fruit of the Loom” tag and that would be the T-shirt that I would wear backwards under my V-necks. You left just enough tag to get it right the first time! I was stunning!

Tape decks were expensive and you didn’t want them stolen, so you would install them in your glove box. That way, you could lock them up for added security. It worked great until the crooks figured out from all of the tapes laying on the front seat that the player was in the glove box.

You didn’t buy a new carburetor; you re-built the old one. Spark plugs were removed, cleaned, re-gapped and put back in.

If you got a flat tire, you didn’t buy a new tube; you patched it. I used to change tires for customers when I worked at a gas station during my college days. I would patch a tube that already had five patches on it! No one wanted to pay three dollars for a new tube if you could get the old one patched for a buck!

While attending college, I never bought new books. I bought used ones. They were a lot cheaper and the important stuff was already highlighted!

Now; tell me that I wasn’t cut out to be a trustee.

Don’t let that new fire truck that we just bought fool you.

We got the loan at ZERO interest.

Yeah; I’m good at this stuff!

TCSS.

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