Let The Games Begin
I recently came across a payroll stub from way back in 1987 when we had four children ranging from ages 4-9. As with so many of these hidden treasures, it got me to remembering…
Our take home pay for a two week pay period was $509. How we managed to stretch that without any government assistance, I am still unsure. Without the help from my parents and a handful of others, who often times would bless us with life’s extras; it would have been much more difficult than it was, if not impossible. I must say that just as I was then, I am extremely grateful for their generosity.
Not having a lot of money meant having to be creative in order to make life more fun. After all, besides parental security and lots of Kool-Aid, having fun is all that really matters to a child. I have always taken all three of these duties very seriously.
Our first Christmas together in 1985 we sat down together and spent a good long time making all of our tree decorations out of different colored pipe cleaners. Both little and big hands were diligently working for the cause. Our tree topper star was an aluminum pie pan with a hole in the middle so that a light could be poked through it. It lasted a few years but was eventually replaced with an actual star. Although our pipe cleaner ornaments don’t get hung on our tree anymore, they still exist; safely tucked away in a box.
I remember that we took advantage of all the free things that society had to offer like the one day each week that it was free to get into the zoo. Almost every Monday we would pack up our peanut butter jelly sandwiches and go see what the animals were up to. We spent a lot of summer afternoons at the free public swimming pools. And we always participated in the summer reading programs at the libraries.
It goes without saying that we couldn’t have afforded child care for me to work so instead I started providing child care for others. I was perfectly okay with that because for me, being home with my children was far more important. This also enabled me to be involved with a wide variety of school activities during the week. During the summers, and before daycare licensing laws, I would care for anywhere from 10-14 children in our home. When I had this many under my supervision we usually couldn’t go anywhere. One summer I came up with a brilliant idea that continued on for a few years…Backyard Olympics. ‘Let the games begin” It lasted over the course of several days. It included timed sports such as the backyard dash and the obstacle course. And endurance sports like jump roping. I had my spreadsheet to keep track of all the details and I wore a whistle to start off each event. The closing ceremony was when the kids were presented with their glorious cardstock shaped ribbons. 1st, 2nd & 3rd place ribbons in appropriate colors were carefully crafted with the event, the winner’s name and times noted. It was a real competition.
Having four kids meant that we owned a couple of station wagons in our day. The first one was a giant orange Vista Cruiser…like the one on ‘That 70’s Show’. It had a moon roof and a luggage rack. One of my scariest memories from that car was driving down the highway…back before seatbelt were required. My little Johnny was about 4 or 5 years old. Somehow I notice something out of the corner of my eye and realize that I could see him through the moon roof of the car, holding on to the luggage rack, standing one the window; his beautiful blonde hair blowing in the breeze. My heart stopped but thankfully I had the presence of mind to not slam on the brakes and just slow down and pull over onto the shoulder. It was one of my most horrifying mom moments ever. I am pretty sure that somebody else on the road that day witnessed this and began lobbying to make seatbelt laws mandatory. Likewise Johnny was required to remain seated away from the windows after this day.
Eventually we acquired a 1978 Chevy van. This was perfect for us because it would not only haul all of us, but it would also easily accommodate all of our camping gear. Camping wasn’t free but it was affordable. As the kids got older it is where we would spend nearly every weekend. Often times we didn’t unload the van in between weekends except for the things that needed cleaned or refrigerated. We camped in style with everything including a kitchen sink. Our vacations were always spent at the lake sleeping in our tent for a week. We would hike down the road and collect a bucket of wild blackberries. We added some sugar and we had ourselves a dessert straight from nature…and we got an added nature bonus of lots of chigger bites!!
Thinking back makes me glad we didn’t have a lot of money! I think we created some pretty unforgettable memories together. And out of necessity we now all know how to make something great out of very little or even out of nothing at all. I bet our grilled cheese sandwiches and Kool-Aid tasted just as good, if not better than some wealthy person’s did! And I’m pretty sure that our Christmas tree with pipe cleaner ornaments and the pie pan star brought just as much joy as any other!
