THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY MONEY…….
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
My niece got married this past month. A very nice celebration even if the wedding party was larger than necessary --- five groomsmen and five maids of honour! As sometimes happens during such get-togethers, I got to talking with a couple of long-time friends, and as we getting-older folk are prone to do; we harked back to the good old days of our youth. One friend talked about the way people, including his folks as well as mine, used to jump at any opportunity to pick up a dollar or two in cash. The work could be a few hours, or just a day or two; it did not matter since “they didn’t have any money”. You see, back in those days we lived off the farm --- meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit --- readily available or disposable income was rare indeed. What little cash that might be available from time to time went into gas for the old truck; needed (not wanted!) clothing and shoes, a necessary piece of furniture or needed appliance, and especially, livestock or farm supplies and/or equipment. People even traded labour, especially on farms --- you come and help me today and I will help you next week. There was little concern as to whether or not these efforts were of equal value.
My friend talked about never driving his father’s car as a teenager. Never! He knew better than to even ask. He talked about working for the best part of a month putting up the hay crop on the home farm --- at no pay; and then working out for more well-to-do farmers --- working a long day for ten dollars and being very pleased to get that ten dollars; because you didn’t have any money! I remember doing the same thing. This was back in the mid sixties. I worked one summer Saturday, 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., helping take in square bales on that same farm --- for twenty dollars. In those days I worked during the summer building houses and cottages for $1.25 an hour --- ten dollars for an eight-hour day; eventually getting up to $1.50 an hour or twelve dollars per day. And I was making more money, and had more disposable income, than many of the adults in the community! Now twenty dollars in a fourteen-hour day, less an hour or so for dinner (lunch) and supper, worked out to about $1.50 an hour. But building loads of hay by yourself while a “hurried up” farmer brought the six-bale stooks to you as fast as he could with a front end loader was a lot more strenuous, at least to me, than putting up buildings.
Yet strange as it may seem by the “standards” of today, people were generally content and exhibited considerable in the way of self-confidence and self-esteem. They were proud of themselves, their kinfolk, their friends, their neighbours and their individual or collective accomplishments. If I remember correctly, they seemed happier; and they were definitely healthier, than a lot of people are today: people who are financially much better off by comparison!
Back then it was rare to be living with, or off of, your parents once past the age of eighteen. Some grown-up-kids lived with parents further into their twenties; those that waited a little while to get married, but they usually worked out and paid room and board. During the late sixties and early seventies quite a number, including yours truly, made the most of post-secondary education opportunities ---quite often solely at their own cost. It was a good thing that the cost of an education was reasonable in those times because many students had parents who could not afford to contribute directly to education and career aspirations.
Now we live in a country, indeed much of the world, where plastic rules. Debt load at every level of society is a chronic problem. Recent generations “needed” it all now, with all the perks and trimmings. Cost be damned; live for today. Stress and related health problems are a result.
People generally do better with less. That was certainly the case and a way of life for the majority half a century ago. In spite of chronic cash shortages they seemed to get along fine and most of them turned out all right. They did not have any money, but they were rich in so many ways!
I was born on the Bruce Peninsula on July 20, 1951 and raised on a farm just south of the village of Lions Head, which is located about halfway up the peninsula on the Georgian Bay shoreline. I graduated from Georgian College of Applied Arts and Technology in Barrie in 1973 as a Resources Engineering Technologist. I was hired by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) in April of 1975 as the first DUC employee in Ontario. Throughout almost 29 years I was involved with the implementation of more than 500 wetland projects and project complexes in southwestern and south central Ontario. Some of these habitat projects included important waterfowl and migratory bird habitat along the eastern shoreline of Lake St. Clair. Just three weeks short of completing 29 years with DUC, I accepted an early retirement opportunity effective March 31, 2004.
