Financial Woes

I was listening to Dave Ramsey yesterday (xm 165) and people have been calling in worried about the economy. He said the economy wasn't in that bad of shape because millions of dollars were still being spent on movies. Since movies are a "want to" and not a "have to" deal, then I agree with him. My parents lived through the depression by working and living very carefully. My dad wanted to go to the University of Wyoming and went his freshman year. The next year he bought a threshing machine and did custom threshing up and down Prairie Dog Creek in Sheridan County. The farmers had wheat, oats and barley to harvest and sell and he did the harvesting for them. My mom worked doing what ever she could because her mom was a single mom. When mom went to the University of Wyoming as a 16 year old, she cleaned houses and did laundry for her room and board and tuition. My uncle, Ralph Newcomer, wanted to go to the University of Wyoming to be an engineer but worked on the Ranch while my dad went to the U of W. He never did achieve his dream but became a very successful dairyman in the '50's and '60's. My dad always helped Uncle Ralph with milking the cows when he went to Sheridan.

I grew up knowing about the great depression because we lived simply with as self sufficient as we could. We had a big garden and canned and froze our vegetables. We had a cellar to keep our onions, carrots and potatoes in sand over the winter. We had chickens to provide eggs and meat. We sold eggs to people in town to earn a little extra money. We had a milk cow that gave us a calf every year for our beef and we drank the milk, made homemade icecream and mom made cottage cheese (I hated the smell of the rotten milk and to this day can't eat cottage cheese). Mom made my school shirts and pajama's on her little sewing machine. She baked bread on mondays and hung our clothes out to dry on a clothesline. She didn't get a clothes dryer until after we moved to Worland. Dad would hunt deer and elk to supplement our meat supply. We fished in Clear Creek behind our house.

I guess that is why when we had children that we focused on living within our means, developing food storage, having a garden, and canning the vegetables of the garden. When we bought our home in Bloomington, our loan was over 13% and the utilities to heat and cool our home were fairly high. So we had to be careful with our money. We did get a credit card and started to use it foolishly and we have spent the majority of our lives trying to stay out of credit card debt. Clothing could be high ticket items and we chose to go the middle road with our kids. I know they feel like they were unfortunate because they couldn't wear the designer clothes, the top tennis shoes etc. We didn't eat steak because it was too expensive. We went on vacations to visit family and we stopped at all kinds of interesting places so the kids could have fun. We watched movies together on TV, we played baseball and swam in the summer and shoveled walks in the winter.

Your mom and I grew up with not much money to have. I had friends who had money and I couldn't compete with them. Unfortunately, as I have worked, we have had sufficient money to pay the bills, save some, have a decent vehicle to drive, purchase a tent trailer, and help our kids once in a while.

I've learned over the years, that the economy is what makes our country great. It is small businessesand large businesses working together. It is helping people who are down and out that shows the world that we care, it is not giving money to people

During the depression, banks failed, foreclosure's boomed and factory's shut down because there was no money to fund them. The stock market went bust. It was a terrible time for the economy. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and manufacturing ramped up to fight WWII then the economy blossomed because people were needed to work and fight. Money was available to fight the war. Since the "great depression" we've had recessions, which meant that inflation rose. Inflation is when there is too much money in the system and the value of the money decreases. I remember a time in the late '60s and early '70s that inflation had risen a bit and President Nixon imposed wage and price controls to artificially support businesses. In the late '70s I was working in Nuclear Power Plant construction and wages for pipefitters were $26/hour. Stagflation became the word because interest was 16-20% and unemployment was high (about 7-8% I believe) Ronald Reagan coined this term and used it during his campaign in 1980 to defeat Jimmy Carter.

The church has promoted self sufficiency and food storage since the depression era to help members (and the world) be prepared for a rainy day. We have