Highlights from 1983

I spent a little more time looking through the old 1983 diary, and here are some highlights: 

I weighed 145 in January, 156 in February, and 161 on April 6.  Yes, I've always been a yoyo with my weight.

My dog Suzie died in January.

Cliff went bowling every Wednesday night during the early part of the year.

I had a Jersey cow and her heifer calf.

We were spending less than $50 a week at the grocery store, for a family of four.

I was walking 6 miles a day, sometimes 8, until we moved back here.  Then it was 3 1/2 miles a day.  No wonder my knees are shot.

For Valentine's Day, my son gave me a carnation and my daughter gave me a little box of chocolates.

The final episode of MASH aired on TV.

We got 4 inches of snow on March 20

We ate at Duffs often.  That's before the place got filthy and closed.  Are there still Duff's cafeterias in existence?  I think I know why my weight was ballooning.  As broke as we were, with Cliff working short weeks, how did we afford to eat out? These are things that make me go "hmmm".  "Poor people have poor ways," as my mother always said.

It snowed 4 inches on April 4, and I was griping about the weather a LOT.

On April 9, my son went to a Billy Squire concert.

Cliff's boss at the butcher shop told him, “I know you're not happy with how things are, but that's how it's going to be. We lost $30,000 last year.” Cliff was often working less than forty hours a week.

April 15, record low temp of 26.  I was still griping about the weather.  Some things never change.

I thought propane was high at 72.9 cents a gallon.

Son Jim flunked his first driving test.  Why?  Because he was driving over the speed limit.

Rachel spent a lot of time in 4H with her friend Kim.  In fact, it appears Chapmans may as well have adopted my daughter, she was at their house so much.

Jim passed his driver's test, May 31.

My parents moved back to Oak Grove from Branson when we moved back to this place.

I babysat two neighbor kids once we moved back; both of them are "friends" on Facebook now.

1983 was the first year I worked at the apple orchard, thanks to neighbor Bonita talking me into it.

Cliff started working at RB Rice, which raised our standard of living considerably.  I'm glad we didn't know then that it would only be three years until they moved to Tennessee.  

There were many notations about my cow and heifer being in heat, when they were bred, and when they were due to calve.  Reading these old diary entries reminds me how we were living "by the skin of our teeth".  It also makes me wonder how much better off we would have been if I had gotten a driver's license so I could have helped out by getting a job.  

"It's but little good we'll do watering last year's crops."