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I'm
remembering when we were youngly married and living in Camp Springs,
MD. I
had a good job, but we were house poor, and every nickel counted.
On payday we'd treat ourselves to a PAPPY's PIZZA
. Sundays
were
dinner at my parent's, and we'd both search the crevices of couches
and chairs for loose change. Every once in a awhile we'd hit the
mother lode; enough lootage for the Ranch Drive-In with a six-pack of
Natty Boh ($2.10 total).
One killer thing was when the military got a
pay raise. We shopped at the Food Fair, just outside the main
gate of
Andrews AFB. We had already noted that at the end of the month, when
they received their pay, that prices on everything rose, and nothing
was on sale for a few days. The gummint pay raise soldered the food
hike permanently. We, unfortunately, did not get a corresponding hike,
and it hurt
Once, with a visit from my in-laws pending, we had to
float a loan from HFC in order to put on a feed for them. The big
Sunday dinner featured a sirloin tip cooked on the charcoal grill. I
had
it marinating in a bowl on the drive-way, but when I went out to get it
the sumbitch was gone! I had an inkling, and sure enough found
Boomer,
our German Shepherd, crouched way in the back of the yard with
it.
Fortunately I'd discovered it before Boomer had time to do much damage.
After furtively looking at windows, and finding nobody watching, I
hosed it down and went forward [actual picture above]. It was as
I remember, delicious. Dog saliva enzymes are good tenderizer.
We now, once again, find ourselves in a
local economy ruled by government paychecks, which are quite generous
in these parts. With inflation looming
already here, and once again finding ourselves with a fixed income, I
see - as
Yogi Berra once observed - deja-vu all over again. No more
parent's
couch though. Did you ever see Fun With Dick and Jane?
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