Why have I bothered to save these check registers from our early marriage? For posterity, I suppose, should anyone actually be interested.
The most remarkable of the four is the second, with checks dating from 9/21/68 through 5/26/69. In our last year of college then, I was 22 and Mary 21. Mighty young and naïve I'd conclude today.
We enrolled that school year with a $250 bank balance. But 11 checks in about a week eroded that princely nest egg to $8.42 after the $75 rent. Payday arrived barely in time: $220 to last another month. With some expanded duties, my salary soon leapt to $303.
A few patterns spring from the register. Most checks were under $20, and many were even less than $5. What could possibly have cost so little?
A few examples: Safeway ($4.65), J.C. Penny ($3.00), Southwestern Electric Power ($4.40), Arkansas Western Gas ($4.21), Gulf Oil ($6.67), Arkansas Gazette ($2.25).
Mother made our $45 car note for many months, but I notice that we eventually assumed the payment ourselves.
Even with such meager resources, our bank balance actually rose to slightly more than $400 on three occasions. But it fell below $50 numerous times. Obviously, we had little cash reserve for emergencies–but none ever arose.
July 1969 saw us both graduated and living in Plano, Tex., then a town of about 10,000. I worked in Dallas, and Mary soon landed a position teaching English at Princeton High School.
We opened our Plano checking account with $600, and the balance actually exceeded that level occasionally. Though it once bottomed out at $15, it seldom fell below $50. Definitely better than college.
But we learned a lesson: where goods increase, so do those that consume them.
Our first week in Plano required several outlays. Timber Forest Apartments ($123 rent plus $100 pet deposit for our beloved Puddy Tat), Home Town Furniture ($15.60), medical clinic ($13), Skillern's Drugs ($8.00), Gulf Oil ($45.67). Then came the beginnings of a new teacher's wardrobe from Young Set ($146.64).
Many small purchases helped get the furnished apartment outfitted. Steve's Trading Post ($4.18), Plano Lumber ($5.00) and Bruton Paint ($3.69) supplied the raw materials for homemade shelves that survived various incarnations for at least 30 years.
A new car bumped payments to $78, and previously unknown health issues bade us visit Plano Medical Association, Dr. Benedict Homer and Texas State Optical. Of course, commuting expenses rose as we each traveled 25 miles in opposite directions to our respective jobs.
Soon, our move to an unfurnished duplex required three rooms of furniture from Bill Massey Furniture ($175.14) and Levitz ($200.00).
Despite the ebb and flow of early marriage fortunes, there were constants. I see, for example, regular checks to Meadows Baptist Church where young Bill Probasco was pastor. And Mary's resourcefulness and creativity faithfully always rendered our various homes (both then and now) pleasant, appealing and livable.
A house may be to fortune bound, but home endures where love is found.
Copyright 2004 James McAlister
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