Money Was Short - Nez

 Money Was Short

By Nez Nesmith

Lyman was considered a poor town in the 1950’s. Several families were rather poor. Some poorer than others. Most men in Lyman were loggers which was seasonal work. Snows in the mountains shut down logging in winter. So, most loggers were on what they called “Rocking chair” or unemployment during the winter months, which wasn’t much. For many families that was their whole income during the winter months, especially if they hadn’t saved any of their logging earnings. Also, women generally didn’t work outside the home yet, so most income was dependent on the man of the house. 

Money was always short. Growing up we rarely had spending money for things like candy, or sodas, or toys or games. Lyman couldn’t even support a restaurant other than the tavern. 

Our family was one of the poor ones, too, but our Dad wasn’t a logger. He was gone. Mom was a divorcee raising three kids and taking care of her Grandma Buckner. We were on state welfare. Mom was a good seamstress and earned additional income with her sewing. But that work was sporadic. There really weren’t other work options for her in Lyman, especially with three kids at home. 

When I was old enough I did a lot of things to earn spending money. Neighbors might pay me a couple of dollars to mow their yard with our old reel push mower. Or I helped someone cut and stack stove or fireplace wood for money. 

One year I sold Wallace Brown Christmas cards. They had a really nice assortment, including Currier and Ives cards. Mrs. Hittson loved those cards and bought four boxes of Currier and Ives, the most expensive. Customers pre-paid for their order with a check in September or October and I sent the orders and checks to the Wallace Brown company, and I received and delivered their monogrammed cards the first week of December. The company sent me a check with the deliveries. But Lyman didn’t have enough customers for me to earn much money selling Christmas cards. I did pretty well but that income was so slow in coming to me that it became our Christmas money. 

I tried other things too, like selling GRIT Newspaper, a bi-weekly national newspaper that kids all over the country sold. But I was looking for something with quicker cash results. 

One of the simpler jobs I did for immediate cash was to hike along the highway a mile or two outside of town with a gunnysack (burlap) to collect unbroken beer bottles and pop bottles that had been tossed out of vehicles. Beer bottles each had a One Cent deposit and pop bottles a Five Cent deposit. Those bottles were sturdy and didn’t break easily and glass is heavy. Pop bottles were scarce, but on a good day I could earn a dollar or two in an hour or so, depending on if anyone had recently picked that stretch of highway. In those days most everyone, including the loggers, drank and drove. 

I always took my very heavy gunnysack to the Lyman Tavern and turned the bottles in for the deposit return. When I made more than two dollars I rewarded myself with a Coca-Cola and a bag of peanuts, for twenty-five cents, which I poured into the Coke. Pure joy. I loved that. 

Then I got old enough to pick strawberries at Mapes Strawberry Farm for about three weeks. Hard work but more money.