What rules did your parents have and which ones drove you crazy?
My parents and I agreed on some rules:
• Avoid profanity
• Speak kindly to others
• Tell the truth
• Treat others respectfully
• Avoid violence
• Help those in need
• Take care of your possessions
• Respect possessions of others
I generally thought these rules seemed sensible and civilized. I saw other rules as arbitrary and harder to accept.
• Do your chores on time
• Do all of your homework well
• Eat all the food you are served
• Be silent and pay attention in church
• Listen to and mind your elders
• Change clothes before going outside to play or do chores
• Read a variety of good books
• Save your money for a rainy day
These rules were harder for me and my objections were logical. For example, I thought I should be able to choose only food that I liked to eat and leave the remainder. In addition, it’s hard to always be on time, hard to be perfectly still in church and hard to remember to change clothes when it’s time for play.
As a child in rural Oregon, my best source of books was the Bookmobile, a van- shaped vehicle stocked with volumes from the Douglas County Library. The Bookmobile stopped at the Calapooya Community Club House once a week. I looked forward to our visits to the Bookmobile.
My reading genre was Science Fiction, and I wasn’t much interested in other genres. I had already read childhood favorites like the Nancy Drew Mysteries, Treasure Island, and the Adventures of the Hardy Boys. So I had a standing order with the Bookmobile to bring at least one new Science Fiction book. This quickly exhausted the available books by the likes of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Andre Norton, and Robert Heinlein.
The Bookmobile woman soon took it upon herself to enlist my parents in encouraging me to be more balanced in my reading habits. Unfortunately, I refused to cooperate with reading more widely until later in life.
Saving money was always hard for me both as a child and as a young adult. One problem was that my Mother tended to be more of a spender and my Dad more of a saver. I sided with Mother, because it seemed more fun to spend money on recreation rather than working hard and saving the rewards of all that work.
As a young child I liked to spend money on small toys, plastic models, and bicycles. At about age 10 I gradually become more interested in clothing, music, and movies. In my high school years I was interested in girls and dating. I was not successful in putting money away for college — even though I was certain that I would be going. As a young adult, there were so many expenses generated by my family of four that accumulated debt basically took the place of accumulating savings.
I did not successfully save until age 40, when I started to take stock and realize that my old age would be spent in poverty if I didn’t enact a savings plan.