any child small enough to pick up will throw a hopeful male off his stride and cool
him down. Oh, it won’t stop a crazy rapist, but most deliverymen (and plumbers,
repairmen, etc.) are not rapists; they are simply ordinary rutty males who will go
for it if offered. The problem is simply to turn him down firmly but gently, without
causing him to lose face. Picking up a child does this.
It was bad judgement also because a whole dollar was too much of my household budget
to tie up in sugar, and (worse) I did not have ant-proof storage for that much
sugar… sol wound up spending another sixty cents on a sugar safe as big as my
flour bin – which left me so short on cash a week later that I served fried mush for
supper when my ‘plan ahead’ called for ground beef patties. It was almost the end of
the month, so it was serve mush or ask Briney for an advance… which I would not
do.
With fried mush I served mo strips of bacon to Brian and one to me, and one strip,
fried crisp, and crumbled, divided for Carol and Nancy. (Brian, Junior, still
regarded Cream o’ Wheat as a gourmet dish, so he got that plus what milk I had left
in my breasts.) Fresh dandelion greens helped to fill out the menu, and their
butter-yellow blooms I floated in a shallow dish as a centrepiece. (Can anyone tell
me why such pretty flowers are considered weeds?)
It was a skimpy supper but I ended it with a substantial dessert I could make with
what I had on hand, plus two cooking apples picked up cheap that morning from my
huckster: apple dumplings with hard sauce.
Hard sauce should be made with confectioners’ sugar – but Aunt Carole had taught me
how to crush and crush and keep on crushing granulated sugar, using a big spoon and
a bowl, to achieve a fair imitation of powdered sugar. I had enough butter on hand
and vanilla extract, and I used one teaspoon of cooking brandy – also on hand; Aunt
Carole had given it to me on my wedding day. (It was now half gone. I tasted it once
– horrible! But a smidgen of it at the right time and place certainly enhanced the
flavour of food.)
Brian made no comment on fried mush, but complimented me on the dumplings.
On the first of the month following he said, ‘Mo, the papers say that food prices
are up even though the farmers are squawking. And I’m certain that this bigger house
is costing you more to run, if only in electricity, gas and Sapolio. How much more
each month do you need?’
‘Sir, I’m not asking for more money. We’ll get by.’
I’m sure we will but the hot weather will be with us next month. I don’t want you
paying the iceman the way some housewives do. Let’s raise your allowance by five
dollars.’
‘Oh, I don’t need that much!’
‘My lady, let’s do raise it that much, and see how it works out. If you have money
left over at the end of the month, tuck it away. At the end of the year you can buy
me a yacht.’
`Yes, sir. What colour?’
‘Surprise me.’
I managed to add pennies and nickels and dimes to that ‘egg money’ over the months
by never using a charge account, even with my grocer-which was just as well, as
Brian was in business for himself sooner than he had anticipated.
His employer, Mr Fones, had made him a junior associate after two years, then
assistant manager in 1904. Six months after we moved into our wonderful new house Mr
Fones decided to retire and offered Brian a chance to buy him out.
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Heinlein, Robert A – To Sail Beyond the Sunset.txt
It was one of the few times I have seen my husband in a quandary. He usually made
decisions quickly with the icy calm of a riverboat gambler; this time he seemed
bemused sugaring his coffee twice, then forgetting to drink it.
At last he said, ‘Maureen, I’m going to have to consult you on a business matter.’