Stories

As I remember, Mum looked after the financial side of family affairs. Maybe Dad let her do it because she was the daughter of a banker who eventually became the western regional vice-president (I think) for the Bank of Montreal. Mum also liked to take a nap in the afternoon if possible and many times when I came home from school, she was still napping. On some occasions when I got home and went up stairs for whatever reason, I would hear Mum's low voice through her bedroom door. She would be lying there in the dark, working out the accounts in her head and talking to herself. Like '...if we pay electric bill $50 this month then next month we can pay phone bill...' or '... costs this month are phone $10.43 plus electricity $22.85 plus ....' If we asked her what she was dong, she'd say "I was doing mental arithmetic in my head." We would laugh, because where else would you do mental arithmetic. Sometimes I left her alone, but more often I'd knock and tell her I was home, so she would get up and make afternoon tea with snacks. Mum always had afternoon tea and a lot of the times I would join her.

Speaking of finances, one day when I was riding in the car with Mum, we passed a billboard sign on a building that advertised seat sale on air flights to England. Along with the usual advertising info, the billboard had a catchy title in big text about saving, eg: "SAVE $200 ON FLIGHTS TO ENGLAND". Mum pointed the billboard out and said something to the effect, "Oh, we could use $200, I'd better fly to England". We had a good chuckle about that one.