The book of knowledge

Bill and I were married in June 1948. We were very frugal, especially Bill. The first year we were married, Bill wouldn’t let me spend any money except for our bare necessities. We didn’t even have a refrigerator. We used my parents’ next door. We both worked at MCAS Cherry Point Marine Base and made a pretty good salary, but Bill kept saying we were in for a big depression.

Then one evening, an encyclopedia salesman knocked on our door selling encyclopedias and volumes of literature books. We fell lock, stock and barrel for his gift of gab and bought the whole set.
When they were delivered, it took one-fourth of our little living room to store them. This was many years before we had children, and by the time we did have children the encyclopedias were obsolete.

We did learn a lesson from this because since that time we have never bought anything from a door-to-door salesperson (except from school kids).

Betty Ward Motes
Newport
Harkers Island EMC