That was just a bit much for me. "You guys make yourself sound like you came from the Stone Age. You are not that old."
Dad continued, "When I was a boy, we wore knickers, not long pants."
Marge broke in, "My wedding dress cost $25.00 and it was beautiful. I still have it in the attic."
"My brother's first car had a rumble seat, do you remember those? We thought we were hot stuff riding around in that rumble seat." Mom loved her siblings and carried their stories with her into everyday life.
"Okay, young'un," Marge focused her attention on me. "since we come from the Stone Age, I have question for you. What was your favorite car?"
"Oh, by far, my baby blue Cougar convertible?"
"And, young'un, how much did you pay for that car?"
"You know, Marge, I just came across the sales receipt and it was around $3800. I made a mental note of that price for future reference. It was a '72."
"And that Celica out there, how much was that?"
"Well, it's a '90 and I think I paid around 13-15,000 new. I don't remember the exact amount. Okay, Marge, I get your point. So, in another 20-30 years when I catch up to your age, I guess I can expect to pay $38,000 for a Cougar." I conceded that they were not from the Stone Age.
"Or more."
It was dad who changed the subject. "I remember when our now mayor came to town. I was working at the filling station and a man and a woman with two small boys in the back seat was moving into town. Gas was a nickel a gallon then. Now one of those boys is our mayor and gas is more than $1.00 a gallon."
"Dad, when I went to Colorado in '70, I remember getting gas for a quarter a gallon, and a pack of cigarettes for a quarter."
Mom wasn't a smoker, and whenever cigarettes were mentioned the subject was changed. "You know I volunteer with Mrs. Dimitri, whose husband owns the supermarket on River Street. She's talking about buying a new house. They have that real nice stone ranch on the west side and they want to get a modern home. Here, I thought she already had the newest of everything in her house, but she said they'd do real good price-wise. She said they had their house built in '62 for $12,000, and now they could make enough money from the sale of the house to not owe much on a brand new house."
"And it will probably have central air," Marge expounded.
"Yeah, and she even said she wanted central vac. Can you imagine that? A vac in every room! Now you don't even need to push that vacuum all over."
"Anyone want more lemonade? I'll made a new pitcher." I needed to go inside to see what time it was.
Mom loved her lemonade, and was quick to answer, "Sounds good."
Once inside, I found it was nearly time for me to go to class.
"It's about time for me to go." I refilled the glasses and placed the pitcher on the small table by the glider. "You know, now that I think of all the prices rising in my lifetime, when I went to the university for my bachelor's degree, a quarter term cost me $168.00 for a full load and that included books. Now with my master's, a book alone could cost $168.00. If it keeps going up, no one will be able to afford college.
"Wait another 30 years," Marge kept with the reminder that life and money continually flow.
I left that afternoon knowing that maybe prices would change in the course of my life, but Marge, mom and dad on the patio in some kind of conversation on a hot, summer day would never change.
***
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Until Monday...have a great weekend.
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