Here's the receipt Dad saved from his Christmas shopping. Most kids wouldn't want to know the exact amount of money their parents spent on their gifts, but I feel better knowing that my ledgers are accurate. Besides, its the thought that counts, and not the price tag! Valleys is a department store that's known for its great selection of toys, so my pops must have done his research to have shopped there, huh? I'm in love with my popcorn maker, so much so that I might never turn it off! The Spirograph is really neat, too. I've made a bunch of designs while waiting for my popcorn to finish popping. Dad even tried making one, but I'm proud to say my lines were much sharper. Dad also bought some more Legos to add to my slowly growing collection, though it was a small set. Those things hurt when you step on 'em, but they're so much fun! Harriet, Janie, and I have all agreed that this year's haul was pretty great. We also agree that we're not excited to go back to the Gregory School, but we are excited to see some of our friends. Anyway, Happy New Year's everyone!
Christmas has come and gone, and what a great Christmas it was! I'm still on holiday from Gregory, which has also been nice. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and then I think I still have another week or two before school starts up again! Harriet, Janie, and I have met up quite a bit over break. It's great spending time with my friends, even though they're both . . . quirky, in their own special ways. Janie showed us her new lab kit she got for Christmas, which deals with making little things out of plastic. Of course, Janie found a way to use it to make little explosive things out of plastic, and nearly singed our eyebrows off with exploding chess pieces. Harriet got several new notebooks, along with a telescope. Apparently, she has a new interest in stargazing. I think she's going to use that telescope to further her spying career. My dad got me quite a few good things, and actually saved the receipt for me, which I'll post in a little bit! I got a Spirograph, the Candyland Board Game (which I convinced Harriet and Janie to play with me), some Legos, and, best of all, a Popcorn Maker!
November of 1960 - Dad pitched an advertising idea for some business or another earlier this week, after spending days agonizing over how his creative talent was going to waste. It was more of a jingle, really. Something about, "It's the Doctor's difference!" or "Pepper beats Cola every time!" The point is, he got a pretty great check for it! $300, all for me to save (and appropriately spend on the necessities, of course.) He's usually good about handing 'em over, and this month wasn't any different. He requested his essentials - cigarettes - and suggested that we buy ourselves some new slacks and shirts. Honestly, I'm more excited to have some cash to hold us over until his next project pays off. (And, maybe splurge a bit on a Thanksgiving dinner, if the old man feels up to it!) I know sometimes he gets down in the dumps when his writing doesn't pay off, but it's months like these, I think, that pulls him through the rougher times. The cookbook that I picked up is called Good Simple Cookery, published about two years ago. I look forward to making some delicious dishes out of it! Today I went to over to Darling's. It's a little store that's on the corner a few streets down from our place. An older couple runs it, with the help of a few neighborhood kids. They're smaller than Dei Santi's, but closer, too. I picked up a few things, including some chicken, vegetables, fruit, eggs - just to fill up the fridge a little more. Dad mentioned that his recent bout of writer's block was ruining his appetite, so he isn't feeling up to a full Thanksgiving dinner. To be honest, I don't know whether I'd be able to cook a big meal like that, anyway. (Maybe I could start preparing for a Christmas dinner instead!) So, I'm going to come up with an alternative giving-thanks-meal. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm sure it'll all work out just fine. In the mean time, I plan on getting a ton of homework done, because the holidays are here, and I don't want to have too much to do over the break! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Dad didn't get much business this month. His check only brought in $160, but I managed to save a little less than $30 from September's budget, so that helped out. I think he ended up writing some Halloween stuff, such as this ad for Brach's Candy, and some little advertisements for a local newsletter. Not much, but every penny counts! I was still able to get a Halloween costume, which was nice. I went as a vampire, BLEH BLEH BL-BLEH! Janie went as Madame Curie (go figure, right?), and Harriet went as Sherlock Holmes. I tried telling her that Holmes was a detective, and not a spy, but she wouldn't hear a word of it. Janie kept scaring younger kids by saying that the candy was radioactive. One little ghost started balling his eyes out, and his mom scolded us pretty good. Anyway, we all collected a bunch of candy, and ended up trading with one another, so everyone got more of the kind they liked. It was a lot of fun!
One of the best places to buy groceries in our neighborhood is the Dei Santi's place. It's within walking distance, the food is pretty good (for a decent price), and the family that owns it is mostly nice, if a little . . . crazy. But, it's a good crazy, a lively sort of crazy! That grocery store is always loud, whether it's the mom bustling about, or the dad hollering for his kids to get back to work. The oldest kid though, Bruno, is always working, quietly sweeping up the floor, or moving produce from the back. He's easily the calmest one there, by far. There's two other boys, one a little younger than Bruno, named Fabio, and the youngest Dei Santi kid, Dino. Mrs. Dei Santi sometimes holds him in one arm while rearranging the fruit and veggies with the other. There's two daughters, Maria Elena and Franca, but they don't seem to do too much. Part of me thinks it would be nice to have a larger family, but who knows what my siblings would be like? They could be really annoying, or bratty, or something. But, it'd be cool to teach them how to cook, and they could help with the chores . . . Anyway, I bought a lot of good stuff today! Here's the receipt . . . Ugh! I forgot to write the month in! Oh well. I'll remember next time.
September was a bit of a weird month for Dad and I. He didn't make very much, but we still managed well enough regardless. What was strange about it was that his birthday is in September - on the seventeenth, to be exact - and he was telling me what he'd always wanted as a birthday gift. He admitted that he'd always wanted a convertible, even though cars in this city are far from practical, let alone affordable! He showed me an ad for the new Ford Fairlane Convertible, and, boy, was she a beauty! I could see why my dad wanted one, along with any of the newer cars, for that matter. They were all really nice looking, really, but they were pricey! An Edsel convertible is easily $3,000, so I can only imagine how much this one would cost. (Of course, they didn't list the asking price on the ad - the shock of it would stop you from going to the dealership and seeing it for yourself!) Obviously I couldn't buy a car, and neither could he, given our budget. I ended up buying him a pretty nice hat, which I'll post the receipt for later, and he was happy enough with it, but I could tell he really wanted that car. Maybe one day, pops. Maybe one day.
Dad's birthday is on the seventeenth. He kept mentioning the Ford Fairlane, and all the neat stuff about it, but there's no way we could afford a car. I remembered that he had been complaining about not having a good hat to wear to meetings, and decided to buy him one. There's a nice department store not too far from the apartment, but I had to take the bus to get there. Thankfully, Dad said he'd only need three of our four bus passes this month, so I told him I'd like to use the last one. He said that would be fine, as long as I didn't go too far from the house. Aleksander's, the store, is only about twenty minutes away, so I thought it was reasonably close enough. Anyway, I went there, picked out what I thought was a good looking hat, bought it, and came home without a hitch. I plan on leaving it on the hook by the door the night before his birthday, so it's there for him when he wakes up. I'm also going to bake him a cake, and I'll have a card for him on the kitchen table. He may not be perfect, but he's my old man, and I love him. Happy early birthday, pops!
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