Against the Wind

Sometimes a little snark is fun. The Powerline guys generate some of the Republican talking points, parrot a few, and are if nothing else, intelligent and opinionated. They watch all sorts of developing stories while practicing law. Today they commented on Paul Krugman’s editorial in the NYT, with a bit of pleasant snark.

But the point that intrigued me in the Krugman v. Krugman article is the note of the effect of generous unemployment insurance. I was appalled when I discovered while working a summer job in college that one of my co-workers was just waiting ’til she’d worked enough days to collect unemployment. This was in the Colorado state employment office where I was a temporary file clerk. That was the first time I ran into a “welfare mentality.” I was aghast that someone would think that a reasonable way to conduct their affairs.

Now two of my children are using state unemployment insurance to make it possible to move, hatch a young un, and get resettled in their next chapter. To their credit, there is every plan to be employed and support themselves. It still surprises me when I realize the extent to which these government supports are taken as entitlements. When I left OK for LA years ago, there was little government support. I had a loan from my parents to help us resettle, and after we’d lived here a year, my parents provided the down payment so we could assume the loan on the house I’m now living in. Actually, they provided the down payment on a house in Tulsa which we sold, and most of the cost of assuming this loan was covered in that down payment. Now, knowing my parents, they kept books and made similar arrangements with each of my brothers when they wanted to buy their first houses. How did you arrange to save or borrow the down payment on your first home for your family?

With that bit of family history, there’s more! This series of photos was coming soon anyway.

These two folks are my maternal grandmother’s parents. The Stewarts of Ottawa Kansas. In the family lore are many stories of them. One touching story from their dotage is that Grandpa was a carpenter, and was happiest working with his tools long after he was “retired” and had come to live with my grandparents, as his wife had a failing heart, and could no longer manage a house alone. Mother says, often she remembered Grandpa coming up from the basement chuckling, and he’d go in and see his wife of some 60 years to share whatever memory or thought had brought him up from the basement. He’d go into their room shut the door and they’d be heard laughing together. He’d then head back down to work more.

He was a carpenter by trade and a volunteer fireman by avocation. He built the home they lived in in Ottawa, KS. He was contracted to build the home my grand parents lived in on Mississippi Street in Lawrence, KS.

Buy the time my parents needed a home, my grandparents had accumulated sufficiently to provide a “home loan” which I believe my parents made payments to them on monthly for many years. I don’t know if it was repaid or became a gift when we left the first house my parents owned in Tulsa, OK.

One of my three children now owns their home, and they got some help from her husband’s parents as I was in no position to help them when they moved…or were evicted from my house.

Charles Carlson STEWART Feb 27, 1862 - Mar 19, 1955

Addie HOWELL Steward Apr 4, 1865 - Dec. 23, 1944

If anyone cares for better copies of these photos, I’ll be making some for Tania as she’s expressed an interest. I can improve the lighting and the angle and get good images of these old photos, and mail prints to any family (or non) for a small fee.

Now for an Ina May. I am to head out to the local feeding ministry as soon as the fellow I’ve hired to tend the yard this summer finishes up. He’ll need paying and then I can get out and help serve food.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at 10:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.