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BACK FENCE ECONOMICS
Copyright 2008 - Bill Venrick, THE WORDWRIGHT.
Alright already! We have heard from the high level economists, and both parties, or so it seems and they have given their opinions and cast dispersion and blame on the folks across the aisles (from whichever side these "well dressed representatives of the nation" holler from) and naturally the various wise guys from the assorted media; so I thought "Why not say something myself?" (My good friend, Bob Tinsky, recently shared his thoughts comparing governmental antics with Laurel & Hardy as you may recall(*).
I know some from the ages of 55ish get a little tired of it but I just cannot think there are enough comments made from the citizens who were born in or lived through the Great Depression. My wife and I wrote a book highlighting a small orphanage in Fairfield County, which operated for nearly 100 years, taking care of children who had been victims of societal malfunctions. Early on into our project it became obvious that the reason any children's home concept, even if you go back to the indentured servant days, existed was simply because some people don't know what they don't know. Of course when the indentured servant concept came to view (at least in our country) was when towns had developed and children came along to families with economic problems just keeping their heads above the water while trying to stand on their tip toes. Some folks obviously had trouble understanding "how kids came along" and once they did it became a choice of whether you became celibate or found another way to pay for all this family that, somehow, made their presence known.
Then, of course, during those days when indentured servants were in vogue, folks just didn't live all that long and some of those children were left for relatives, neighbors and ultimately the courts to care for. My wife's descendants had their own sad story to tell when both the parents died within a matter of months and "all of a sudden" there were six kids whose lot was to raise themselves, but it was a help that Grandma & Grandpa were in the near neighborhood. Without going into a lot of details, that brood did a pretty fine job of raising themselves but that is another story. But back to the Great Depression days.
I was born in 1932, which appears to be the wearing off times of that depression but the ripples of those slim days was still a bad taste in the mouths of most and "things" were still not easy to get unless you were fortunate enough to have money. My father told the story many times about a house on the SW corner of East Wheeling and Livingston Streets that he couldn't buy because he didn't have the 10% required for a down payment. The house was selling for $1,200. (Yes, twelve hundred dollars.) Back in those days banks were not in every neighborhood shopping center. In fact, you walked to the tune of the drummer boy (the banks) if you wanted to do any business with them. They were not open all that long during the day - just customarily 9:00 til 5:00, and they closed Thursday afternoon, and Saturday they closed at noon. It was pretty much, if you had money in the bank or a good credit rating you could get whatever money you needed to buy a house. Also, back in those days, our city was made of 80% property owners and the rest of the folks rented. We had schools where teachers were routinely career people. with the small exception of some teachers who should never had been given the job to begin with but most teachers were the kind who were very concerned about teaching their pupils "reading, writing and 'rithmatic" and throwing in enough geography and history to know where all these people came from and how they all got here in the United States. But I digress.
Plain and simple, you bought what you could afford and if you couldn't get a loan, you kept on renting. Since my Dad could not come up with $120 dollars (one-hundred and twenty dollars) he simply did not qualify for a loan from the bank. There were other ways to get money though, small amounts that is. If you needed a new refrigerator or furniture, the store would "carry you" and let you pay for it with monthly payments and charge a small interest. If you were still wanting more, there were always those City Loans who loaned money at a much higher interest rate but if you couldn't meet their payments they had ways of getting their money back by turning you over to a collection agency and you might even have your wages garnisheed and then your employer would be legally empowered to deduct a certain amount of your pay until your debt was paid. People moved pretty often in those days. When I graduated from high school I had lived in twelve (yes, 12) different places but fortunately stayed within two school districts in all that time. One summer we even moved over to Wheeling Island (in the middle of the Ohio River between West Virginia and Ohio) when my Dad wanted to express his patriotism by quitting his job at the glass factory and went to work in a "defense plant" (making pom pom guns for the Navy)--sometime during WW 2.
People had it rough but for the most part, to be blunt, people either had it or didn't have it. Those who didn't have it, were not babied or coddled like people are today and there was no such thing as NO MONEY DOWN loans. That almost qualifies for an oxymoron--how could you get money (a loan) if you didn't have any collateral? It just wasn't done!!
And that is just about all I wanted to say - our country has gotten itself into one big mess, probably the nearest to the Great Depression that I have ever experienced but our great leaders (of this nation) do not seem to want to admit how bad off we are but when you see interest on Certificates of Deposit go from 12% to 2%, the dumbest guy in the class can tell you "somethings wrong!" Oh, there is money being printed and there is some around but have you noticed how much it looks like Play Money - why, any real printer would never print such currency--the type chosen doesn't even match. There might be a larger figure (or numeral) in one corner that is an entirely different style of type - no professional printer would have dared made that choice. For years we have used the motto "In God We Trust" (on our currency) but our country has gotten so casual (and bending to "new concepts") the motto has become so small (of course it had to be small on coins) that now the new dollar coin has it obscured so that it had to be put on the edge of the coin. Try to read that without a jeweler's magnifying glass!
Folks, I think it is about time we get used to the idea of maturing into people who are capable of being satisfied with what they have. The asinine motto of one rent-to-own company, whose motto is: "Because we all should have nice stuff." Oh??? The key words are "we all"; we all may want better stuff - whether or not people can afford it is another matter.
When we get back to buying or living within our means - that's for everybody: homes, schools, towns, factories, stores, the country, then we will see some semblance of normalcy - not before. I cannot resist saying that somewhere along the way, whether it was entirely the Union's fault is an argument for sure, but when the employee started telling the company how to plan their pay scales, and provide financial benefit packages (ad nauseam) for every worker, this was the beginning of the new way of doing business. Back in the post depression days when my Dad's union fought for a pay raise, it might have resulted in "mere cents on the hour" and if there had been a strike (to boot), whatever pittance they gained was already lost after their first new contract took affect. Another axiom, "The only thing we learn from history is we don't learn anything from history." That in itself is not too encouraging though, is it?
Competition has always been "good for business", but when that competition is on the other side of the globe and wage earners there are making a fraction of what Americans demand, could it be we have gone amok with our high standards of living? Drive down the streets of any town and look at the older homes - typically you will see many more smaller homes than big homes; you can be sure that those homes probably produced the same size families, maybe even larger, than those who are trying to buy the multi-level near-mansions. One great difference though, those home owners probably had their "smaller homes" paid for in 25 years or less and one wonders if the big home mortgages of today's market will ever get paid off. #####
THE WORDWRIGHT
* TINSKY essay "Another Nice Mess" check in the archives)
"WELL, HERE'S ANOTHER NICE MESS YOU'VE GOTTEN ME IN"
Copyrighted 2008 by Robert J. Tinsky, Guest Essayist, Oblong, Illinois
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Those of us who have been "around the block" more than a few times will remember the title of this essay as probably the most famous line of the comedians Stan Laurel and Ollie Hardy.  The team entertained people from all over the world with their humorous antics from 1920 to 1950. They made 106 movies during their long career.
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The words quoted in the title of this essay were first used in the film "The Movie Case" produced in 1930. They were later used in the movie "The Fixer Uppers" in 1935. In at least two of their later films they made a hilarious change in this famous line when Ollie said to Stan, "Well, here's another nice kettle of fish you pickled me in."
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Enough of the history about these two famous comedians. What I want to say in this brief essay is that the leaders of our financial institutions and of our federal government have gotten our nation in another mess. Or to paraphrase the words of Laurel and Hardy we could say "here's another nice kettle of fish you pickled our nation in."
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I am wondering if we have not had too many "Laurel's and Hardy's" in charge of our financial institutions and our government. Isn't it time we kicked out all the knuckleheads and replaced them with people with some genuine business sense.Â
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You can study the background of this whole mess and soon discover there is plenty of blame to pass around. From what I have been able to ascertain it started with some stupid government policies that violated some basic principles of economics. We are told that greed is one of the basic causes of the problem. Greed certainly made the problem worse, but in my opinion it was because we had too many "Laurel's and Hardy's" in charge. Like those two comedians they bungled the way our financial system is supposed to work. All I can say to these "comedians" in charge of our government and financial institutions is "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten us in."Â
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WELL, Bob, you've made it short but not so sweet. It certainly is a prayer of many that our country can work their way through this crisis, however it might involve re-teaching an awful lot of people that lesson us old-timers had to learn years ago--knowing the different between "wants" and "needs". THE WORDWRIGHT
Guest Essayist: Bill Volkart, Cincinnati, Ohio - Copyright 2008
My mother was a young woman during WWII and was one of the early liberated types called in those days a 'Rosie the Riveter' type. She loved working and going out with friends and soon developed a love of alcohol. In fact she was out drinking and dancing the night before I was born. Today that would be child endangering, then it was just a fact of life.
She was a good mom and loved me dearly but her love affair with alcohol was still with her. She taught me to read and by three I could read rather well for a little child. I read well enough to know the words Gin, Vodka and Bourbon for sure since those bottles were always around.
We only had one car since mom never learned to drive so we walked everywhere or rode the bus. By the age of five I was dutifully walking with mom everywhere we went. One of the places we walked about every three days was to the liquor store since mom would polish off the booze pretty quickly. This was lost on me, being five, but I knew where we were going and knew the clerk there by name and I could immediately find the brand of booze she wanted. This soon led to my knowing what kind of drinks she liked and knew how to make them. It was not long before I knew how to make a dry gin martini (her favorite drink) as well as whiskey sours and now and then a Tom Collins. I was probably the only five year old bartender in Cincinnati. My wife kids that mom taught me to read so I could learn to read the Barkeepers Friend drink mixing book.
As time passed I learned that not all moms drank like mine nor did their kids mix drinks. It made me worry about her but despite my protests she continued to drink anyway. It eventually took its toll on her and on August 11, 1978 when I was 26 years old, she died of liver failure. She was 56 at the time and it has taken me many years to get over her untimely death. But even now I remember our walks to the liquor store every three days. That liquor store is gone now and so is mom but I can still make one helluva dry gin martini.
If you are an irresponsible drinker, please stop. It affects more than just your liver, it ruins lives and makes some of the worst memories a child can carry through to their adult life. Don't live your life serving as a bad example. I have forgiven my mom, you may not be so lucky with your kids.
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I encourage every parent to read this essay and print it to pass on to other parents. My friend, Bill Volkart, in Cincinnati, Ohio, has written a story that is a virtual mirror of my life as a teenager. My mother was also an alcoholic and abused her body to the extent that she passed away before she was 42 and I was 15. The incidents I experienced often haunt me to this day as I recall the stigma and embarrassment because most of my friends knew my mother was a drunk--there were few "soft terms" then for alcoholism as "political correctness" was yet to be discovered. I was not like my friend, who learned how to mix drinks; rather, I became a professional at finding where mother hid her booze, and then I would throw it away, naively thinking I was doing the right thing. Sixty-one years later I vividly remember helping my mother as she struggled getting off the bus late at night, after having been in a bar most of the evening. Those experiences were sufficient warnings to me about the control some people lose when they become drinkers. THE WORDWRIGHT
by June T. Bassemir, Guest Essayist - Copyrighted 2008
When I asked June for some bio information, she wrote: "My biggest accomplishment (besides having 4 children who have produced 9 grandchildren) was restoring a 1931 Model A Ford - and no.... I was not the original owner. " June lives on Long Island, New York and her family is among the first settlers, after the Indians, that is. I appreciate June's ability to work with words--yes, another Wordwright for sure. And, just for the record, Mrs. Wordwright thinks June is "right on" with this subject! - Bill Venrick, THE WORDWRIGHT
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    After many decades on this planet I have decided we all seem to be governed by the market place. I am not talking about the market place in Africa where peanuts, and manioc is sold on the ground, but the Market Place in the United States.  The big office room with the mahogany table and chairs, where the CEOs of mattress companies like Seally, Beauty Rest, Serta and Temperpedic get together with linen companies such as Cannon, Wamsutta, JCPenny Home and Burlington.
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    I'm not suggesting that these two different products are in bed with one another but it is entirely possible that Mr. Burlington's middle name is Serta and Mr. Seally's first name is Cannon. In this sacred room they discuss business and quite naturally the conversation goes like this: "How can we stimulate more sales?" One bright twenty two year old boy, [the son of one of the company heads] has a brilliant idea and he responds thusly: "Let's change the size of our mattresses making them thicker and then everyone will have to get new sheets to go with them?" Now this dear fellow has not been very attentive to his mother's folding of sheets and pillow cases. After all, they probably had a maid to do it, and so he puts forth his idea and they all agree - "It is a capital one." (Of course, aren't they capitalists?)
    So the Seally, Beauty Rest, Serta and Temperpedic blue-suited men decide together to do exactly that -- on the first day of the next year. The linen people follow suit thus causing women young and old, housewives and executives to head to "Linen and Things", or "Bed Bath and Beyond" to replace all their old sheets which of course, now do not fit the new mattresses.
    There are a few drawbacks to this scenario which affect you and me and the first is, .have you noticed that cotton sheets and/or cotton & polyester sheets do not wear out? I mean, when was the last time you climbed into bed and put your foot into a torn area? Never. Sheets just don't wear out. Have you ever asked, "What should I do with this perfectly good sheet now that it won't fit my new mattress?"  I had a solution one time and that was to make rags. Yes, indeed, cotton sheets make good rags especially for people who restore and repair old cars. However, unless you are a member of one of these clubs, your rag recipient will be hard to find.  And there you are, with a pile of nicely folded twin and double sheets ready for something...to go somewhere - but where? Another bad feature is that the linen people have decided it is easier for them to put elastic all around the whole bottom sheet edges, instead of just in the corners, which makes the folding of them for the linen closet, (if you are lucky enough to have a linen closet), just about impossible.
     Before this, I had educated myself in the art of folding the old style of fitted sheets and received much applause from friends and family alike for my expert folding ability. If they gave out degrees for such, I would have one but now I not only have lost my degree in Folding 101, I have failed utterly with these new "pillow top" sheets.  I have tried over and over to get a decent folded object that will fit on the shelves of the closet, but try as I may, I have yet to succeed.Â
    If money was no object, I would donate this new mattress to the Salvation Army along with two sets of new double sheets but Sleepy's is still waiting for the remainder of their money... so I am stuck! Besides, where am I going to go for a mattress of the old kind?
    Climbing into bed each night used to be an anticipated seductive pleasure but now it has become a dedicated effort.  One does not just flop into bed.  No no...a step stool should be considered and a box of Kleenex kept handy for eventual nose bleed from the high altitude.   And for heaven's sake - don't fall out of the bed in the middle of the night - it's a long way down.
    Due to "Junior's" suggestion at the CEO meeting when he came up with his brilliant idea for "stimulating sales", we are all in this quandary together and it was created by ...the market place.  I would like to be invited to join the next planning committee meeting to give these executives some advice on homemade practical design.  Sadly, they only seem to be interested in the black figure of the last column on that green ledger sheet and not Mrs. Little Known Homebody.    Â
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THANKS, JUNE, for another unique essay from the woman's point of view.
THE WORDWRIGHT Â Â Â Â
By Guest Essayist, Robert J. Tinsky, Oblong, Illinois
Recently my long-time friend, Bob Tinsky, sent this to his local newspaper as a LETTER TO THE EDITOR -- sounded like something THE WORDWRIGHT readers would enjoy, so here it is:Â
I don't know about you, but I will be glad when this year's election is over.  I am getting really miffed listening to all the petty things being floated around about each candidate.
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I don't care how many houses either candidate owns. I don't care whether or not either one knows how to bowl. It makes little difference to me whether or not either one has ever fired a gun. It is not important to me that either one be able to give a rousing speech. I don't give a hoot about the color of the skin of the candidate or whether the person is male or female
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I also am not interested in hearing all the promises either candidate makes. Promises are easy to make. What I want to know is how they propose to keep any of those promises. Can they guarantee me that they can get their proposals approved by Congress? Where is all the money going to come from to pay for all the things being promised? Does either candidate have any concrete suggestion as to how we can pay off our national debt? Will the person elected be the one who can lead us out of the moral swamp our nation has gotten into and restore the moral and spiritual dignity that once characterized our great nation?
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Another thing I don't care a snap about is all the misdeeds that can be dug up concerning the past of either prospective president. I did a lot of stupid things when I was young. I surely don't want anyone hanging the mistakes of my youth around my neck today. I am not interested in knowing about all the foibles in their past. What I want to know is what kind of a character the candidate has developed that will assure me that he or she will be a good and respectable and moral leader of nation today.  I want to be assured that the person I vote for is a person of integrity.
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Also I want to know what qualifications each person has that can assure me that he or she will be the right person to lead our nation during the next four years. Is the candidate a person who can reach across the aisle and bring the two parties together so they can work together for the good of our nation rather than simply for the betterment of their political party?Â
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I believe that we need to set aside all the petty nonsense and deal with the genuine issues. If you agree with me, let's all say it together "Enough already!"
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ANYONE ELSE out there who has wanted to write such a letter? THANKS BOB!
THE WORDWRIGHT
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A QUART OF MILK - When I was a boy, the Milk Man (Bennetts, Deeds Dairy and Home Dairy, to name the more popular dairies "back then" in Lancaster, Ohio) would leave a couple quarts of milk at our back door and the only identification as to contents was the name of the dairy on a little paper cap covering the bottle opening. I believe it simply said MILK, and maybe later, "Homogenized". You knew what it was because it was in a MILK BOTTLE. Sure there was cream, buttermilk, and even orange juice available but the point I am trying to get across is that the ingredients were quite simple. At breakfast this morning I noticed the rather large label on the plastic gallon jug containing 2% Milk and figure there must be several dozen words identifying or describing the contents of the container, as well as the bar code for pricing and inventory control. As specific as they are today, I am surprised that they do not list what field of the farm the cattle grazed, and maybe even which teat of the cow's bag the milk came from!
GASOLINE - Just two grades, Regular and Ethyl. Diesel, to the best of my knowledge was not around then, unless it was a restricted commercial item. You could buy "coal oil" or kerosene as it is known today which is comparable to diesel fuel, I believe. Then people used kerosene as fuel in small kitchen stoves with one, two or several burners that were designed for people who did not have a natural gas or electric stove in their kitchen. Today, the price of gasoline, and especially diesel fuel, might well be labeled GOLD, liquid gold that is.
CEREAL - When I was a kid, I think it was about then, they started using the word "preservatives" in certain products. One I remember for sure, was a box of Kellogg's (I think) PEP cereal. For some reason, it got old at our house or the grocer's shelf because it was about the stalest tasting stuff you could find - and we probably threw it out. Not that PEP was not a good cereal, but that cereal simply got stale. Today, cereals and such products are so hyped up with chemicals that even bugs don't bother eating it, but as people, we don't know any better and we gobble it up without another thought. Today there are also "expiration dates" on most products. Sometimes, of course, this is a code or an embossed type of identification but it is there just the same. Also, years ago little trinkets or awards were in a box of cereal, or no less than a coupon that you could send off and get a whistle, compass or other "valuable" item most kids would want. Or you could send in the BOX TOP, or several box tops and, with a few coins, and get a secret code ring!
HOSPITAL CARE - Close to the house we lived in when I was a teenager was the original hospital of our town. It was a two story house where nurses and doctors took care of patients in a very personal way. It was not unusual for the doctor himself, to carry a patient up a flight of stairs to the 2nd floor, after surgery, taking them to their room. Of course, most my age remember when "house calls" were more than a funny situation comedy on public TV. In my early adult life, it was also not unusual for our doctor to instruct his patients to "Pick up your pills in the box at the office front door." There, on the porch, just a few feet from the sidewalk, among packets of pills for sometimes a dozen or more, would be a packet of pills with the name "VENRICK" handwritten on the little envelope. There was no slip to sign, no validation required - trust and integrity were a part of the society in which we grew up. It is obvious such trust is not visible in today's society where you have to put your "signature" on a slip of paper and then "print" your name and phone number on the slip, and oh yes, PAY FOR the medicine before you leave the counter.
YES, I am aware my age has something to do with my desire for "the plain and simple". As I mentioned earlier about the PEP cereal going stale or flat, you can just about bet that we are not plagued with that because of all the additives they use in food products. However, the recent experience my wife and I had, acknowledging, accepting and adjusting to the facts of life - both of us had let ourselves go, weight wise, and excess weight and blood pressure are not "friendly facts"; so we have been quite conscious of the portion of boxes, bottles and bags called "Ingredients". Some may remember my rant about wanting chocolate milk without high test sweeteners or why they have to include high fructose corn syrup and (more) corn syrup in tomato catsup; well, it took all of about 60 seconds for a best friend and my wife to "inform me" you have to include sugar (or some kind of sweeteners in some things. OK, alright, OK, sweeteners are necessary but that still doesn't keep me from studying "ingredients". I am glad there are some food products prepared "plain and simple", e.g., Peanut Butter, dried fruit and some cereals. A popular food chain in this area, KROGERS, has a line of peanut butter that has, for ingredients: "Roasted peanuts, salt. Contains: PEANUTS" Pick up a jar of the top sellers and you will find that peanuts and a LOT of other stuff is in that great spread that doesn't stick to the roof of your mouth. (If you too would like some "plain and simple" peanut butter, and you are in an area where KROGERS is known, look for their product: "Natural Creamy" Peanut Butter.
The same is true with cereals. I prefer Shredded Wheat that has a list of ingredients with as few lines as possible. A POST "Shredded Wheat (with wheat'n bran)" only has three lines: "Ingredients: Whole grain wheat and wheat bran. To preserve the natural wheat flavor, BHT is added to the packaging material. And for "Contents: WHEAT" Again, take a look at those whiz bang popular brands and see "what else" is needed for most cereals. (End of commercials - no, I have not been promised a dozen cartons of any of the above products but I sure do like them!)
Yes, I am aware there are folks with unique health issues and "plain and simple" is virtually impossible. Rather, you will find a notice like, "This product was manufactured in a building where wheat flour and peanuts were processed." Pure and simple, our society has become quite complex, and let's face it, most of us are glad food producers recognize generalizations like "plain and simple" are simply not always possible.
Those who have experienced similar problems as my wife (stroke and diabetes), they and their caregivers, simply must become very thorough readers of foods products we find on the grocery shelves. Since we have drastically reduced our desire for sugar we have found even sour fruit tastes sweet! We have a hybrid blackberry bush in our backyard that is thorn-less but boy is it sour! Funny thing, that real sour taste has been reduced since we "gave up" sugar - fresh fruits have sufficient sweetness and if we add fruit to our cereal, that is sufficient sweetener. And boy do /we like the ingredient list on a package of dried plums: "Ingredients: California pitted dried plums. Potassium Sorbate added as a preservative."
Yeah, "plain and simple" is still around too!
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THE WORDWRIGHT
But one that should be discussed.
June T. Bassemir, Guest Essayist, from Long Island, New York
Copyrighted 2008
When I asked June for some bio information, she wrote: "My biggest accomplishment (besides having 4 children who have produced 9 grandchildren) was restoring a 1931 Model A Ford; and no, I was not the original owner." June lives on Long Island, New York and her family is among the first settlers, after the Indians, that is. I appreciate June's ability to work with words--yes, another Wordwright for sure.
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Living in a house with one bathroom, three sons and a husband, my mother saw early on that she was outnumbered. Something had to be done. I will ever be grateful to her that she trained the men in our family to put the seat down long before I arrived on the scene. It was the kind thing to do.  As a result of her determined effort; I never had the distasteful experience of sitting down without the benefit of said seat. That is, until I was newly married.
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Late one night and without the benefit of any light it WAS my unfortunate experience.  That was the first and only time it happened because I followed my mother's example on the matter and taught my husband to be considerate of me and replace the seat. When the sons came along; they did the same for the sake of their sisters. Now, you would think that was all I had to say on the subject, but it's not. Grandsons are now on the scene and there are many. Once again I am outnumbered when they visit. This lesson has to be taught either by drilling over and over until it finally sinks in or with a note in red letters, above the flushing unit. The note explains that it is a loving habit for them to form for the next person who follows them into the necessary room...to wit, the  grandmother.Â
This lack of consideration was recently experienced with the visit of an air conditioning man who came to spend some time going over an estimate for air conditioning my house. After his consultation which actually took less than an hour, he stood up to leave but asked first, if he could go to the bathroom.  This question always feels like an intrusion to me and it makes me inwardly groan when those who have come to do some small service work, asks it. One time I had the foresight to say to a burly, overfed, 300 lb. electrician. "Sorry, I am having trouble with my cesspool right now and I'm limiting the number of flushes." But, this time I was taken by surprise and so I had no alternative but to point in the direction of the pink room, next to the laundry room down the hall. While he was occupied, I looked over his worksheet and noticed it compared exactly to the work of the previous estimate from another company.   However this man's presentation was more detailed and I was leaning towards giving him the contract even though his price was considerably higher than the first.  I had to weigh which estimate I would choose.
After his visit to the tiled room and his departure from the house, I sat down to compare the two figures again, mulling over the decision. I liked this second man's approach in showing me just where each air duct and return would be placed and where the unit would sit outside. I could forgive him for asking to use the bathroom, but there had to be more than the money saved with the first estimate, to make the decision.  I was still thinking of which way to go, when just by chance; I happened to pass the bathroom door and looked in. Oh no -- HE LEFT THE SEAT UP! That did it.  Needless to say the first A/C man will get the job. Of course, I would never tell No. 2 man that he lost the job due to this small infringement, but that was the deciding factor - plain and simple.
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So mothers, teach your sons to think of others especially of their future wives and daughters and put the seat down. I won't insist on the lid also coming down but occasionally that would be nice too. And workmen - think and act ahead and make sure you can give an estimate or do the work involved without asking that ugly question: "May I use your bathroom?"
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THANKS for some great tips on a delicate subject, June.
THE WORDWRIGHT
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