A FUNNY THING HAPPENED AT THE DOLLAR STORE

THERE'S BAD NEWS AND THERE'S GOOD NEWS....

There's bad news...it's the oil thing...

I was there, RIGHT THERE, that hot July night in 1950,

(that scary year of the second half of the century)---down

in Dawson County, Texas, when our oil well "came in" as

a gusher.

Yes, I was asleep on Pop's couch in his living room

while he and Dad were out watchin' 'em drill,  at 

two a.m. for black gold!

It was like "BOOMTOWN" without Humphrey Bogart

and James Cagney--- all over again.

It has been nice, eatin' bacon now and then for breakfast,

and having a steak once or twice't a year.

But ah...the bad news. The oil well guys just up and quit

and went off fishing somewhere, maybe over at Tahoka

Lake. The oil pumping has about petered out.

It's easy for you to say: "Oh joy, look at the price of 

gas---I'm driving  to Pt. Barrow this summer!"

If I were a drinker, I'd tell you...I'm off Macallans 1798

and onto Diet Pepsis. 

If I were a smoker, I'd say: Bye, bye $6.00 Macanudo

Churchill cigars.

We are down to two meals a day, these days, and my,

buttermilk-and-cornbread are really not bad for supper.

(It's all that Lee's Confederates, on their long walks home

from Appomattox, had to eat.)

Now good news: B.E. is doing okay from her second 

cataract surgery on January 19. 

She has all manner of visual vicissitudes even yet to deal 

with in the form of ...DISTANCES!  Until the BIG BOYS
at Eye Associates can wield their magic --- for some
six hundred dollar "cuadra-focals", she'll need

different glasses for reading, watching TV, playing the piano,

night driving, day driving,  and I don't know what all.

So several days ago, she headed off to our new-style

shopping venue (since the oil money faded.) ---THE 

DOLLAR STORE ---to pick up some  bargain (and 

well-made) SPECTACLES @ 1.00 per.

It's true---barely comprehensible--- people can produce

excellent frames, lenses, ear pieces...even put little

eagles on the right and left,  package them, ship them,

market them @ $1.00 each...and make money.

I must write Trump  about THIS!

Well sir, while she was there she picked out four 

magnifications---1.50, 1.75, 2.00, 2.25---

and she bought 'em all for four dollars !

Ah, but while there, she also spotted and bought 

herself a new set of dishes....Mexican dinner-

style-looking-dishes...to have people over for 

tacos, tamales, enchiladas, carne adovada, 

rellenos, guacamole dip, nachos...and on...

Just check that plate---don't you want a taco...

just seeing it  ?

Yes, the bad news, I guess, was we had a new set

of dishes...and nowhere to put them. And I thought
probably she'd spent $300 on them! 

But there is good news...comes in TWO PARTS---

(1)  "A happy wife means a happy husband," as Ben

Franklin probably once said.

2)  And check this! Oh joy! The dishes were one 

dollar each! Ah, what a store--- the "DOLLAR

STORE!" We were out less than forty bucks!

Definitely my kind of store!

Now if lead poisoning doesn't get us, we'll LIVE

long and happy.

*************

BY MIL

1-28/16

(Writer's note: Well, OK, I may have exaggerated
the poverty-thing JUST a  bit, "Literary License", you know!