We got out to see Jack and the Owen's family today. In addition to Great-Grandmother, I even got to hold him for some time. He seems so small even though he has regained his 7 lb. 4 oz. birth weight. He was pretty sleepy during much of our "holding time" so it wasn't too great a challenge for the holder. Elaine and I look back on the days when we had our first baby boy on August 17, 1950, our youngest son on November 22, 1954 and 2 in between; another boy on March 4, 1952 and our daughter on August 11, 1953. Fortunately, our folks lived nearby which helped considerably, but we still wonder how we were able to cope. Elaine had just turned 24 at the time our youngest was born and I still marvel at her ability, strength, courage, ambition, faith, etc. that helped us though those years. Interestingly, I don't remember ever feeling sorry for ourselves. We didn't have Health Insurance but were able to pay for whatever we bought and get our first little house paid for before moving to a larger house in the spring of 1955. My salary as a Civil Service technician was minimal and I worked at 2nd & 3rd jobs to make ends meet. While recognizing that it's a different world today, and are most sympathetic to many people's plight, these are reasons why we were surprised at the extent of support for the passage of the minimum wage proposal. I would rather have seen a reconsideration of the Reagan tax cuts as a way to reduce the expanding divide between the rich and the poor.
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