Indebted

 Do you borrow money from your parents or do they lend you money? They always seem to have what you need when you need it.

In February of 1973, we were living in Ohio. Phil Donahue was leaving Ohio to start a television talk show in Chicago. Our town had 25,000 people with Phil Donahue being our hero. Some of you reading this do not know who he is - look him up.

I was 6 months pregnant, looking like a whale out of water. I had a job as a bartender but they made me quit right after Christmas because they thought I might slip and her myself and the baby. For the first time in my life I had nothing to do. I started bridge lessons at the YMCA. I met wonderful ladies and men who were eager to learn like me. We started talking one day and decided to go to Chicago on the train to see the Phil Donahue Show. We ordered tickets - they were free. The round trip train ticket was $60. I did not have it and my husband, at the time, would not give it to me. He controlled all of the finances, there were no ATM's back in those days.

I thought about asking Nan but I knew she had less money. I asked my father for $60. It was the first and last time I ever asked him for anything. He demanded that I pay him back as soon as the baby was born and I went back to work. He knew my husband refused to give me the money even though I had contributed to our finances since we were married.

Off we went 9 ladies from a hick town all dressed up and ready to show off in the audience of The Phil Donahue Show. February in Chicago was cold and miserable. We came from a state that was cold and miserable in February. The excitement of the excursion was warming us from head to toe. WE MADE IT! We were on Television. We stopped for lunch after the taping and got back on the train to go home. We had a super duper time and my husband was mad because I could not stop talking about our good time. I paid my father back his money by the 15th of June that year. 

My sister "B" was younger than me, more clever than me, prettier than me and would get my parents to give her anything she asked for in the way of money. My parents were divorced so she would go to my father for $200 then to Nan for $200. Since they did not speak to each other they had no idea of what games she was playing. This went on for years.

One morning my sister threw some stones at my mothers' second floor apartment window. It was 6 A.M. and the doors to her apartment building would not let anyone enter til 8 A.M. My sister wanted money and my mother did not want her to wake up the apartments next to her. Nan, being the most clever person in the world, taped $60 to a roll of wrapping paper and hung it out the window. It did not reach my sister so she shut the window on the paper and ran for another roll of wrapping paper. She taped the two together to reach the ground. My sister crumbled up the paper and threw it in the trash to the horror of Nan.  Why did my sister need $60 at 6 A.M. that is another story for another time.

Open Your Wallet!

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