2 inches and two squares

 2 inches and two squares

This a strange title for a blog. The content is referring to our experiences growing up. 

Two inches

 
Alice was told that when she went to take a bath she was only to run two inches of water in the tub. Her mother would say every time she went to take a bath,”Only two inches Alice Virginia.”

The reasons were the cost of the water and at that time houses had septic tanks.
You probably have never had to deal with a septic tank. You are blessed with a sewer line that the water and sewage take that from your house and you never think about having to pay the water bill.

Two squares

 
This is grandpa’s story. We had a bathroom and tub all the time I was growing up until we moved to Lander. We were allowed as much water in the tub as we wanted. My mother asked her three boys to only use two squares of toilet paper when they went to the bathroom. We did not know what a bidet was and no one where we lived had any knowledge of that. I did as my mother requested and used just two squares. The toilet paper at that time was not soft like we buy today, but it was better than the paper in my grandmother Stucki’s outhouse. When we went to Paris we used the outhouse because she did not have a toilet in the house. It was built before they had indoor plumbing. My uncle Morris Athay put the bathroom toilets in the house. The toilet paper in the outhouse was the Montgomery Ward catalog.

You are raised in an affluent society compared to your grandparents. Your grandmother was paid 35 cents an hour when she was growing up working at the dime store and babysitting. I had a paper route and then worked at J. C. Penny after I was in high school for fifty cents an hour after school sweeping the floor.

Our parents did not have much money and had to pinch pennies and we grew up in that environment. So when you think things are bad remember your grandparents did not have it as good as you do. 

 

Love,

Grandpa