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sidMy father never threw away anything.
Ever.
Anything.
This is making my life more difficult, but on the other hand, after emptying the bottom drawer of his desk... I now know what I cost!
The hospital bill for my birth totals $146.63, which I suppose was a lot of money back then. Mom's semi-private room cost $14 per day. She stayed for 5 days. The cost of the nursery (hey, that's me!) was $25, so I assume it was $5 per day.
Anesthesia was $11, the delivery room cost $15. 16 cents for medicine a few days after I was born? What, two aspirin?
Dad paid in cash.
For some reason there was a $4.40 discount.
I came with a discount? Cool!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
And, totally cool, I found 7 typed pages in the drawer that had to be a college writing assignment - Dad's life story up until that point: growing up in a sleepy country village, crushing on the grocer's daughter, getting all "artificially bashful and nervous" upon entering high school in the big city, summer jobs and his first "earnest" job after graduation: working for his father's farm produce trucking business, which led to him falling off a truck in mid-September, 1941, and spending a week in a coma and over two months confined to bed. (Dad doesn't mention it in these pages, but he often told me about how his step-grandfather sat by his bedside all the time he was unconscious, which totally made me love a man who died when I was too young to remember him.)
Dad was ordered not to do any work at all for six months after that, so he took a Vocational School course in fundamental radio theory (radio had always been his hobby - his HS yearbook is full of "Good luck with radio!" wishes), which led to a job offer at Webster Electric in the special amplifier assembly department when his "period of enforced idleness" came to an end. After working two weeks and receiving his first paycheck, he bought a car.
"At last I was able to get out of that isolated, dead little town and into the city whenever I desired. It marked the end of that period of my life in which I was the proverbial good little boy who stayed at home." This was during WWII, and gasoline rationing and 10-12 hour days at work slowed down his activities a little, heh, "but by no means curbed them."
Looks like it was about a year later that he was drafted into the Navy, springtime 1943. He was trained and then stationed at Great Lakes, only 30 miles from home, so he was able to keep in touch and go home regularly. Then he was sent to school in Chicago, and could still get home every weekend.
Then after eight months in the service, he was transferred to a school in California, where he met Earlyne: "There I met a girl who seemed to me to be the girl, became engaged to her, and broke off the engagement two weeks after it was made." (*g* My mother also was engaged at around this time, and it was also broken off. When they eventually began dating, it was in order to prove that they could do it without getting serious. OOPS!)
In the fall of 1944 Dad found himself at sea for the first time, and wound up in yet another school in Pearl Harbor, where he was interviewed and asked what type of duty he preferred, and assigned accordingly. He went aboard his new home, the U.S.S. Vestal 12/1/44 and remained with her until 2/16/46.
"Hong Kong, China was the first liberty port the ship had entered in 14 months, and the crew made up for lost time. We were granted liberty one day in four, and the three intervening days were welcome days of rest." (And, oh yes, Dad had a girlfriend in Hong Kong. I've seen her picture often, which never got buried but was always somewhere close at hand.)
March 11, 1946 Dad became a civilian once again, in San Francisco. (Somewhere around this time, he was standing on a corner waiting for a streetcar, when he suddenly saw his cousin Jack walking down the street. *g* They had a very nice reunion. There was drinking involved. They went to a photographer and posed for pictures. I LOVE THOSE PICTURES!)
Dad visited family and friends up and down the west coast for the next month, and went home when his money ran out, having prudently purchased his train ticket in advance.
Early that summer he applied for college under the G.I. Bill, and when accepted he purchased a trailer and reserved a spot in the University of Wisconsin's trailer camp. Two weeks before registration, he was informed that he couldn't live in their trailer camp because he wasn't married. He found a place in a city park, and reports in this paper that he had not yet become snowbound. (Based on that, I'm guessing that he wrote this paper 4 or 5 months before he married my mother and moved into the trailer camp proper. :-)
He finishes the paper thusly: "This business of becoming educated has not visibly changed my personality. My experiences in the past three years have taught me to accept conditions as they are and to make the best of them. I can make friends with anyone, regardless of his opinions which may differ from mine. My habits have not changed, except where financially necessary. I suspect that at times I am a little too easy going and agreeable."
Aw, Dad, that's why everybody loved you!
Ever.
Anything.
This is making my life more difficult, but on the other hand, after emptying the bottom drawer of his desk... I now know what I cost!
The hospital bill for my birth totals $146.63, which I suppose was a lot of money back then. Mom's semi-private room cost $14 per day. She stayed for 5 days. The cost of the nursery (hey, that's me!) was $25, so I assume it was $5 per day.
Anesthesia was $11, the delivery room cost $15. 16 cents for medicine a few days after I was born? What, two aspirin?
Dad paid in cash.
For some reason there was a $4.40 discount.
I came with a discount? Cool!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
And, totally cool, I found 7 typed pages in the drawer that had to be a college writing assignment - Dad's life story up until that point: growing up in a sleepy country village, crushing on the grocer's daughter, getting all "artificially bashful and nervous" upon entering high school in the big city, summer jobs and his first "earnest" job after graduation: working for his father's farm produce trucking business, which led to him falling off a truck in mid-September, 1941, and spending a week in a coma and over two months confined to bed. (Dad doesn't mention it in these pages, but he often told me about how his step-grandfather sat by his bedside all the time he was unconscious, which totally made me love a man who died when I was too young to remember him.)
Dad was ordered not to do any work at all for six months after that, so he took a Vocational School course in fundamental radio theory (radio had always been his hobby - his HS yearbook is full of "Good luck with radio!" wishes), which led to a job offer at Webster Electric in the special amplifier assembly department when his "period of enforced idleness" came to an end. After working two weeks and receiving his first paycheck, he bought a car.
"At last I was able to get out of that isolated, dead little town and into the city whenever I desired. It marked the end of that period of my life in which I was the proverbial good little boy who stayed at home." This was during WWII, and gasoline rationing and 10-12 hour days at work slowed down his activities a little, heh, "but by no means curbed them."
Looks like it was about a year later that he was drafted into the Navy, springtime 1943. He was trained and then stationed at Great Lakes, only 30 miles from home, so he was able to keep in touch and go home regularly. Then he was sent to school in Chicago, and could still get home every weekend.
Then after eight months in the service, he was transferred to a school in California, where he met Earlyne: "There I met a girl who seemed to me to be the girl, became engaged to her, and broke off the engagement two weeks after it was made." (*g* My mother also was engaged at around this time, and it was also broken off. When they eventually began dating, it was in order to prove that they could do it without getting serious. OOPS!)
In the fall of 1944 Dad found himself at sea for the first time, and wound up in yet another school in Pearl Harbor, where he was interviewed and asked what type of duty he preferred, and assigned accordingly. He went aboard his new home, the U.S.S. Vestal 12/1/44 and remained with her until 2/16/46.
"Hong Kong, China was the first liberty port the ship had entered in 14 months, and the crew made up for lost time. We were granted liberty one day in four, and the three intervening days were welcome days of rest." (And, oh yes, Dad had a girlfriend in Hong Kong. I've seen her picture often, which never got buried but was always somewhere close at hand.)
March 11, 1946 Dad became a civilian once again, in San Francisco. (Somewhere around this time, he was standing on a corner waiting for a streetcar, when he suddenly saw his cousin Jack walking down the street. *g* They had a very nice reunion. There was drinking involved. They went to a photographer and posed for pictures. I LOVE THOSE PICTURES!)
Dad visited family and friends up and down the west coast for the next month, and went home when his money ran out, having prudently purchased his train ticket in advance.
Early that summer he applied for college under the G.I. Bill, and when accepted he purchased a trailer and reserved a spot in the University of Wisconsin's trailer camp. Two weeks before registration, he was informed that he couldn't live in their trailer camp because he wasn't married. He found a place in a city park, and reports in this paper that he had not yet become snowbound. (Based on that, I'm guessing that he wrote this paper 4 or 5 months before he married my mother and moved into the trailer camp proper. :-)
He finishes the paper thusly: "This business of becoming educated has not visibly changed my personality. My experiences in the past three years have taught me to accept conditions as they are and to make the best of them. I can make friends with anyone, regardless of his opinions which may differ from mine. My habits have not changed, except where financially necessary. I suspect that at times I am a little too easy going and agreeable."
Aw, Dad, that's why everybody loved you!
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(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 10:51 am (UTC)i love that you came with a discount.
your dad sounded like an interesting guy. how awesome that you can read about his thoughts and experiences.
my mom has my father's handwritten journals. apparently he's been keeping them his entire life. not sure if i'm ready to read them yet.
(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 01:51 am (UTC)Whoa, I don't know if I'd want to read journals. Could be TMI! I know - read peeking through your fingers. ;-)
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 12:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 01:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 01:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 01:56 am (UTC)And anyway the scanner isn't working! But at least I could have described her clothing. The picture is just a head-and-shoulders shot iirc, but I can't for the life of me remember what style of clothing she was wearing. Oh, and yes, she was Chinese. *g*
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 01:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 02:01 am (UTC)I'm trying to be cautious. I leave some things for my brother to make a decision on, and other things for the estate agents to determine the value of... and that still leaves me plenty of things to toss!
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 02:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 02:09 am (UTC)Allowing for inflation, my folks paid about $1150.00 for me, and that didn't include any pre-natal care or doctor fees, just the actual hospital costs.
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 08:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 02:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 08:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 02:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 12:18 am (UTC)I wish more people were "able to make friends with anyone, regardless of [their] opinions which may differ."
(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 02:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 08:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 20th, 2010 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 10:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 11:24 am (UTC)*hehe* That reminds me of a story I've read some time ago where a father teases his son after being asked why he loved him, replying that he came with instructions telling him so. On blue paper, since he's a boy. Saying to feed the kid, change the diaper and love him.
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 02:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 03:28 pm (UTC)and yay for Discount!Baby Sid!!
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 04:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:37 pm (UTC);-)
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 04:18 pm (UTC)Although, hmmmm, I wonder why the discount. Your instructions must have been missing from the package.
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:43 pm (UTC)Maybe the discount was because you are a slightly irregular? *giggles!*
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 05:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 08:43 pm (UTC)There are plenty of online toys that will adjust for inflation, such as this one: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ I don't know what year you were born, but using 1960 (my own birth year), $146.63 in 1960 is the equivalent of $1050.38. This can give you a good basis for seeing just how much costs of some things have really climbed, beyond the underlying inflation. (Other costs have actually fallen -- car maintenance, food, telephone bills, travel.)
The discount couldn't have been for cash over credit, but it might have been for cash over a check. A 3% discount for not having to process a check makes some sense.
I LOVE the story your dad wrote! How wonderful that you found it!
(no subject)
Date: May. 19th, 2010 10:11 pm (UTC)I was so surprised to find out how well Dad could write! Maybe I inherited more from him than just the family nose and high arches. *g*