A scrapbook of life

Grannie Annie in this time of “isolation” has been cleaning closets. The thrift store is well served because they received a plethora of invaluables that we have collected for a lot of years. Other treasures are being portioned out to our children and quite a lot went into the circular file. Presently she is into pictures, mostly the snapshot kind and many of those are in well-organized albums or scrap books.

One of the albums that we evidently inherited when cleaning my mother’s stash after she passed away is of a trip that my folks drove to California. It was in September 1941 and our country was at peace but that changed abruptly less than three months later when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Actually, my folks drove two cars westbound. Dad was in a something like a 1935 Dodge Coupe that belonged to Dale Zulauf and his passenger was Josephine Edwards Zulauf newly married to Dale. Josephine was the daughter of our closest neighbors down along the creek some thirteen miles south of Culbertson. She was going to join with her new husband who had ridden the train out to San Diego to work in a factory manufacturing military aircraft. Being of draft age the thought was that hopefully Dale would be granted a deferment from military service. As an aside that didn’t work as he was drafted into the Army in time to walk across Germany near the end of the war in Europe.

My mom followed dad driving our kinda new black 1939 Ford Tudor sedan with me, age about 4½ and my younger brother Tommy along for the ride. My two older sisters were left for some reason probably with relatives back home. As planned when the Dodge and Josephine was dropped off with Dale then Dad and Mom visited a couple relative families along the way back home with us two young’uns in tow.

The scrap book has pictures of mountains so different from flat Nebraska. Then too the different types of vegetation like saguaro cactus and palm trees. I remember picking dates off the ground. She mentioned swimming in the Pacific Ocean, which I remember, probably the first time to see that ocean for all of us. Of interest to me mom recorded that at the end of the trip they drove a total of 4119 miles and “The total cost of gasoline and oil for our car was $47.87.” as she summed it up. The route she described ran from their home to Trinidad, Colorado, and then roughly hiway 66 to San Diego. I remember crossing the desert at night as those cars had no air-conditioning. She also mentioned staying in several “cabin camps,” my folk’s word for motels, and that the cost for at least one was all of a $1.00 per night.

Their trip home went from San Diego north up through San Francisco to Sacramento, in her words, “the most sane and beautiful town in California.” Then east on to Salt Lake City, Green River, Wyoming to Denver and eventually back to “Home Sweet Home”. They left on September 10th and returned on September 22nd.

Okay some 4119 miles travel for $47.87 for fuel. One can hardly get out of the county for that price, about what it costs to fill up one tank of fuel today. It wasn’t that our old Ford got such good mileage it was that the dollar has been so drastically devalued in the 79 years since. Inflation caused by the Politians that we have elected to office.

Ever wonder where our USofA is going to get that Three Trillion $’s that funded the bill that President Trump signed into effect recently? Yes we, those of us that actually pay taxes, over the next several years will pay back to the U.S. Treasury that amount plus interest. It won’t be in today’s dollars though it will be in future vastly devalued dollars. I noted that some person in a governmental financial office stated that due to a zero interest rate it won’t cause any inflation. Yeah right!

Yes Grannie Annie and I both received our direct-deposited checks for $1200 last month. Both of us are on Social Security and I receive a nice monthly retirement check for military service so frankly we didn’t need the handout. We will keep it though, as will about every other person on the receiving end. So far, I haven’t seen any suggestions of how we are to pay that $1200 back. Was it a grant or a loan? I don’t recall that “they” ever checked with us before depositing. What a way to run a Federal Budget!

So, the country is about to loosen the restrictions on travel and gathering that was imposed to lessen the spread of COVID-19. Mitigation some called it. We Nebraskans can be thankful that Governor Ricketts wasn’t nearly as draconian in issuing those restrictions as the majority of other state governors. Still it will be wise for us individuals to practice the hygiene practices recommended and to steer clear of persons likely to be carriers of the coronavirus disease. It is especially important for those of us who are older and have other complicating issues like heart disease, diabetes, and excess weight.

I wholeheartedly agree with Grannie Annie that since the announcement of a person from Red Willow County that is hospitalized with COVID-19 it is a warning that the disease may be headed our way. Continue to be prepared.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail