Monday, November 22

Monday, November 22 - Marv and I went to Montgomery Ward and picked out a rug. Went home and Sarah offered us a rug so we took that. Anything is good enough for Dorothy. Took treatment and paid rent - 2 months

Tuesday, November 23 - Took treatment. When I got home Marv had left dishes in sink - nothing done - so I did it then I sat and bawled. What a life!

Wednesday, November 24 - Took my last treatment. Marv is beginning to thaw a little. Big deal! He did make the best pumpkin pies I ever ate.

My tone-deaf dad. It's not entirely his fault, I suppose. He grew up in Fort Scott, Kansas with five siblings in a little house out near the city limits on Wall Street.

When the Great Depression hit in 1929, dad was nineteen years old. He and his family made do, although most were able to keep working at one thing or another. Dad worked at strip-mining coal for quite a while, and then was hired at Mabel Whitside's grocery as a clerk and butcher. 

When he could, he played semi-pro baseball on Kansas barnstorming teams, playing against negro league teams and other exhibition teams like House of David. Dad boxed as what would today be classed as a light-heavyweight. Never a contender, but he won a few dollars in the ring. 

My dad is frugal, and if he can get by without buying something, he does. He was famous for painting nearly anything that didn't move, a coat of paint being as good as buying something new.

Mom and dad went to Wards to buy a rug, and after they got it home, dad told his sister Sarah about it. She offered dad a rug that she had instead, and dad took the new rug back to Wards. Mom was livid. Dad was defensive. Cold shoulders all around. You know things are bad because dad didn't do the dishes. The horror.

Dad's secret weapon in marital negotiation is the kitchen. He bought cheap cuts of meat - chuck roast, round steak - and gave them the treatment. So tender you could cut them with a spoon.

Dad took the knowledge of grains that he developed making fish bait and parlayed that into extraordinary baked goods. His pie crust was the best I've ever had, even unto this day. He originally used a combination of butter and lard, but gradually converted all his recipes to vegetable oil. I won't even start on the huge cinnamon rolls he made. They are the reason for my teenage pudginess.