I have given this post some thought and I think I have some answers to why they seemed to have a good life on a modest income. My parents and grandparents each only owned one home. Mine purchased the house I grew up in, in 1941 and we sole it after my father died in 1981. No mortgage payments for 20 years. Only paid a realter one time. I'm in my 8th house. Though my employer paid costs on 2 if I had all he Realtor fees and bank loan fees I have paid in the last 40 years I too would be mortgage free. They purchased middle class cars usually Pontiac's His 1939 was driven into the 50s. No car payments ever. kids were spread out , 1934, 1938, 1944, 1948 and 1950 (oops) Only one in college at a time. In the early days and during the war gas was at a premium and there was no such thing as a supermarket. Once a week the fellow came from Hanson public market in the morning and took her order and deliver it by the time mother needed it to make diner. Milk and bread were delivered 3 days a week. Mother didn't have to drive much until well into the 50s and then dad carpooled to Quincy. Vacations usually were going to see relatives in Maine, NH and Greenfield MA. After the kids grew up they did take a couple of road trips together. Mother never flew on an airplane. Today everybody fly's. dad took the train for business most of the time. In the mid 50s he took the train to San Fransisco twice. He never flew in anything bigger than a DC3. They only had one phone though because of my fathers job during the war he had to have a private line which the company paid the premium for. When I was at a friends house and had to use the phone to call home I didn't know about party line and was surprised when I picked up the phone and heard people talking. When the owner said to just wait a minute untill the line cleared. When I picked up the phone and didn't hear anything I spun the crank and the operator came on and I told her our number (101) and the said thank you David and mother picked up . A party line cost about 1.50 a month or less than 2% of a years pay today who doesn't have a home phone with a private line and in any household everyone over 12 has a cell phone. In 1981 dad still had the ma bell rotary dial phone they gave him when they installed dial service in the early 50s. Life was simpler then and money spent for what today might be everyday living would have been considered an unbelievable extravagances only for the very rich. Kathy Montgomery wrote: > now, folks - > > I just want to clarify - my mom doesn't have any thoughts that she is due > money she didn't get from her grandparents. neither did her parents or > sibs; they were the only possible "heirs." > > Mom is 80 herself - she just can't think how her grandparents lived as well > as they did, with the money her granddad would have earned. This does puzzle > her, and as I said, it is the only genealogy thing she is curious about. it > would be nice to please her. > > I appreciated the suggestions about taking in wash or sewing. my mom did > not. when I asked if there was any chance of that, she said "surely you > jest - take in wash? she sent her own out! she was no washer woman!" She > says grandma could not have hidden wash or sewing - 6 grandkids in and out > too often. They did not rent out the Billerica house, nor the RI cabin. > > My sister and I laugh over less respectable sources of money. When we said > maybe her grandma was a bootlegger, mom said "NO! that was your dad's > grandma!" > (I think it could have been something like: an Cambridge Irish cop > apparently showed up at the door to ask a Lithuanian immigrant something > along the lines of "what's this I hear, you been making beer?" during the > prohibition. She - the Lithuanian - never could speak much English. But > she did know two things - 1)that if the cops showed up, you better do what > they said, and 2) that if men demanded beer, you better give it to them. > The cop left with a bottle, she thought she got off lightly; govt in > Lithuania was very repressive and to be greatly feared. He came back the > very next week . . . eventually, his cousin married her daughter.) > > My sister and I had less savory ideas, but mom was quite floored. NO WAY! > > Besides, great grand ma was busy being what I guess would be called a club > woman. > > I realize I have strayed off topic again, but I do have genealogy questions: > > 1) how would I find out about probate in 1959 for a Cambridge resident? is > that still the court over by Lechmere? any idea how expensive it could be? > any online source? I am in western Canada, no trip on the horizon. > > 2) I have seen the online property thing on the Cambridge city website. No > help, as they didn't own land in Cambridge. does anyone know how I could > research land records for Billerica, circa the 1920s to the 1940s? I have > not done any land record work in my previous genealogy "diggings," so I am > quite a newby in that regard. > > well, as always, my thanks to you all for listening, er, that is, reading, > and thanks for suggestions. > > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAMIDDLE-request@rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAMIDDLE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.14.3/2413 - Release Date: 10/04/09 06:20:00 > >