Wellons Frugality

Like my other grandparents, Ralph and Bess Wellons were frugal to a fault. Well, not entirely, since they put a POOL in the backyard just so their 7 grandchildren could swim from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But still.

My grandpa ran a car pool to work for many years. He would pick up 3 men from nearby neighborhoods and they would pay him so that they could leave their one car at home for their wife to use. He would use this money to pay for maintenance  and gas for his vehicle(s). Yes, he continued to take riders after he had bought a second car...a new Chevy Bel-Air station wagon. He needed that to haul his grandkids around every few weeks. Until they got the second car, my grandmother took the bus to town and could walk to the grocery or could do larger shopping trips when he was home. For entertainment, they would go to K-Mart once it opened. Who didn’t? And dinner out with the grandparents was a great thrill for us boys...a trip to McDonalds! My parents wouldn’t take us there and it was a long drive from our house. At least our folks would stop at the hot dog stand since it was on the way to our grandparents house!

I remember the canning operation that my grandmother (and my mom and Aunt Beverly) used to run in my grandma’s kitchen. They would can vegetables from the big garden and make jelly. I was not a fan of vegetables at the time, but I’m sure it saved everyone a few dollars. My grandpa really, really liked jelly too!

I also remember my grandmother making noodles from scratch on her kitchen table. I even got to help a couple of times. She would split the finished noodles among the three houses. She would also make pies and cobblers, often using the cherries from the cherry tree in the back yard.

My mom and my grandma made a lot of their clothes, using her old Singer sewing machine and mom’s newer Singer. They bought patterns and fabric and were pretty good at it. My mom did become the teacher eventually, because she was very good at sewing. My mom knitted, but my grandmother did crochet and had blankets in the living room that she made by hand.

Fun for my grandparents was staying home with family, including their siblings, and playing cards. Usually Cribbage, which I never quite learned, or Euchre, which I did learn. And I taught my kids, too! And their friends!