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So that's, uh, Yeah that's another thing I have a problem with my wife, Yeah. she, uh, she likes to, um, she doesn't like the beef dishes. She likes the chicken and fish, Uh, yeah. and, like I said, we always ate beef and, uh, pork, you know, a lot, Oh, yeah. so I know, my husband did too His parents are Austrian and they, uh, always made sure they had a lot of meat at the table Oh yeah, red meat, plenty of good red meat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
My dad could eat, a, a meal with out any vegetables at all. Oh, my gosh. And, uh, Susan's, you know, they had, you know meatless meals, you know. Yeah, yeah. My dad wouldn't know what to do. Oh, gosh, so do you, Course, she grew up Catholic so you know, they, they sort of come with the, Oh, they did the, there's a certain amount of meatless meals you have to have That you do, right, right, that's just part of it. Uh-huh. Yeah, we didn't, my family didn't, but when I got into the vegetarian cooking we got kind of used to that,
but my husband always did it kind of grudgingly, he never, Uh-huh. There was dishes that he really enjoyed, eating. Uh-huh. there were several things that he liked but it never was really, something that he would have chosen. It's just that I cooked so he had to put up with it Right. So, but there was one thing that he couldn't stand and that was soybeans. I tried it like once or twice and he just could not eat it, so I never, I had, I was limited. I had to make vegetarian meals without using soy beans, but. Yeah,
it's hard to get a protein content up then Yeah, yeah. That's true Yeah, I like, I like them every now and then for a change, it's nice. Yeah, some of the stuff is good, but it just, it was a tremendous amount of cooking Because you do have to make sure you have the right combinations of different proteins to make sure they're complete, Uh-huh. and we had little kids at the time, you know, when I was home with them, and it, it was just so much cooking, I couldn't, I don't like to cook. And I'm not really that great at it so it just turned out to be too much of a, too much, too much cooking. So, well, I guess I'll let you get back to feeding your little one there. No, uh, he's all done.
He's set, oh okay. Yeah, yeah, I set him down. Okay. Do you like to bake at all, or do you, do you get into that's, that, Yeah, we used to do that, um, my mom, used to go crazy, every Sunday, until my dad like blew up, you know Yeah after he gained about eighty pounds after coming back from the Navy, she stopped doing it. But, um, she used to have, you know, two dozen sticky buns, three bread rolls, you know, every week. Really, no kidding. And, um, the sticky buns, of course, would last, you know three or four days and that would be it. Yeah, then be gone.
I know, that's the thing about baking. I used to, I, I don't mind baking at all and I, I can do a pretty good pie, we have this pie crust recipe in our family that my grandmother gave my mother and my mother taught me how to make it. Uh-huh. And, um, so I can make a pretty mean pie, but, um, I don't do it anymore because it's just too fattening. We had the same kind of problem. If you make homemade bread, Uh-huh I mean, it's supposed to save you money but you eat like three times the amount of bread that you usually eat It tastes so good. Uh-huh, we always, we had that bread that was, uh, um, you ever seen the, the starter bread, I can't remember what it's called, they call it the, um, Amish bread here
but, Oh, uh, yeah. uh, it's made with, you just leave it out, Yeah. you know, and you let it spoil sort of. Yeah, uh-huh, I've heard of that, I've heard of it, but I've never done it. You know, yeah. That sounds pretty good. Yeah, it tasted pretty good, really. Yeah, oh yeah. But, uh, it's the sort of thing where you let a portion of it go bad and then you add all these other ingredients to it, but. Yeah,
and then you you make the bread but you pinch off a portion, or save a portion of it for the next time, or something. Yeah right, you take some of the batter out and give it to someone else and that's how they continue the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, it sounds, it always sounded, I don't know how safe that was Yeah, I know it sounded strange to me too, I figure, well you're baking it so, you know, yeah. Yeah that's true, that's, that's got to kill anything I guess, but. Okay,
well, I'll talk to you later. All right, well, yeah thanks. Where are you calling from by the way, Texas. Plano. Where? Yeah, Plano, in Texas. Plano, okay. Are you in Texas? No, Falls Church, Virginia. No kidding, gosh it sounds so close. Yeah, I know we've got a good connection, must be a, uh, T I connection, yeah.
Yeah, I thought for sure, I thought for sure you were in Dallas or something. Yeah, I, I talked to so many people from Texas that's where practically everybody I talked to is from. Yeah, yeah. I think that's why they call me because they want to get people outside the state, you know. Yes they're they're trying to get all different amount of people. Well gee, my husband is from Richmond and I went to U V A, that's where we went. Oh, oh really. Yeah, yeah. Yeah I went to school at, uh, well I went to school at West Virginia University, Oh you did, yeah.
but I grew up right here in Falls Church, right outside D C. Yeah, boy we'd like to get back over to the East Coast, I'll tell you. It's nice over there. Yeah, it's sort of funny, I have people that want to go to Dallas. Oh, really. Yeah, one of my, one of my friends here, he was just talking how he's thinking of leaving the company and going to Dallas, saying how, Oh, yeah, no kidding. Well, things are doing pretty good down here, we, we were, we tried to move over to Raleigh last year and there just was, there was so little, such little going on in Raleigh, you know, you couldn't get a job to save yourself over there so we decided we'll try in a couple of years, but, but business is,
Yeah, yeah. We were saying we could sell our house here and buy one down there cash, you know. Yeah, you probably could, you probably could, Well Northern Virginia. Okay. Okay, well it's good talking to you. Nice talking to you too. Take care. Bye, bye, Bye. Well, I don't, I mean, I don't know what you think about the, subject, I'd, the, I had never really thought of what they said before about allowing the, the sentencing to, uh, to go to the judge instead of the jury and allowing him to do that. I've been kind of sitting here thinking about that a little bit while I was waiting for them to phone somebody, and I don't know that that's not a good idea. That's not a bad idea I, um, uh, that, you know,
they probably, need to change it somehow, uh, the whole system needs changing, we've just got too many people in there , and, uh, , are putting too many, uh, people in jail that probably don't need to be there I agree. and it's another form of sentencing. Uh-huh. But on that one thing, I, I still think it should be a unanimous decision, Oh, yeah, I agree. Yeah. uh, I think we're getting to the point now where they're going to eventually let it be, um, majority vote. And that's not going to be good. I don't like that, no, No. I don't like that at all. I know my husband served on a, on a jury a few months ago up here in Denton, but, uh, it was a guy, it was, it was a drug conviction and I don't remember he had some cocaine and it was accused of selling it,
and I don't remember exactly how much he had but, uh, actually not selling it , there's a difference, couriering it is what, is supposedly a difference from selling then being a courier and, he was a courier. Right. And, uh, they, he's, he sat on that jury and they found him guilty, and they went through the sentencing phase and everything and, uh, you know, they were told that, you know, during the trial that this is this guy's first offense and he's got this clean record, and, and they ended up, the jury, you know, decided, hey, it's time to crackdown here, you know, and it was time to do this drug thing and let's crackdown and let's really, and they sentenced him to fifteen years, you know, which they thought first offense, okay, this is, they thought that that was, that was a good thing. Uh-huh. And they sentencing him to fifteen years
and, um, after it was all over, uh, the they sit down with the judge and with the other two lawyers, to someone in the let me come over in just a second, okay, and sit down with the judge and with the other two lawyers and they were told that, uh, he would probably serve three, of the fifteen, and that he had three previous convictions. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. However, they could not tell the the jury that during the trial because all three of them were in appeal. Oh, yeah. So, the jury didn't know about it, so here they based their sentencing thinking that this was this guy's first offense, Sure . and so, you know, we'll give him fifteen which will teach him a lesson but it's not just, you know, horrible, since it was first offense Yeah . and he'd been convicted three times before, you know, Oh . and, and the jury was very upset and my husband came home, a home, very upset, I mean, he felt like that, that they had been tricked, you know, Right. and so something, I wonder if a judge didn't have control of that if some of that would change, you know.
Yeah, the judge might know or at least it, it wouldn't hurt to switch over there and see if it worked any better, if it didn't we can come back for something else or, That's true. That's very true. or, or what we've got, so. Yeah. Well, we definitely need a change in the system and, uh, Yeah, obviously what we are doing is not working, you know. It's not working, too . No. It's just piling up on us. Yeah, and there's, you know, there's people in our prisons that are not being rehabilitated in any way, shape, or form, Right.
and either they're in there, forever or when they get out they're, you know, it's a matter of a few months Right. and they're going to be right back for the same thing so the system, We're just not willing to set a society not willing to spend the time or the money to do what it takes, so. That's very true. Yeah. Yeah, I was talking to a friend of mine about this the other day and I said, you know, I understand that there are a lot of countries that rely on the United States, to and, and the, and the people in those countries rely on our money to survive Uh-huh. but I really believe that we need to take care of ourselves, Right. I mean, we, and, and I know people say, oh, it would be cruel to, you know, pull our aid from these other countries and, and maybe so, so tell them, you've got five years. To work out a plan, to make it on your own.
Right. Yeah. And, we will continue funding you for the next two years, after two years we'll cut it down seven to seventy you know, seventy-five percent. Uh-huh. And after another year we'll cut it fifty percent, and in five years, it by then you should all should have a plan worked where you can make it on your own without our help. Sure. And then we'll have all, we'll have, we will have the money if we would do that to, to work on your own system because we've got some serious problems here Yeah. and we're trying to, heal the world, you know, Very serious, yeah. it's just not, it's just not working. Oh, yeah , your right , . I look at the, I look at what, you know, what, the aid presented to the Kurds and I, I feel sorry for them and I know they're suffering and I know they're dying everyday,
but we've got, you know, kids here in the United States that are dying everyday, too. You know, and being, abused and neglected Sure. Oh . and, you know, I don't know. I just have this problem with, uh, trying to heal the world when you're so sick yourself, you know, You bet . so. Right. Well, we seem to agree on the jury thing and, uh, but, uh , we'll need an unanimous verdict and, maybe let the judge have a opportunity to make, a decision . Yep. I think we should try it, like you say, Yeah. if it doesn't work, we can always come back, but I think it would be a good idea to try it. I do too. So, anyway, well, we all agree. Well, good. Good to hear from you.
You too, bye-bye. Bye-bye. So I own a, a P C A T at my home. Uh-huh, I could never justify owning a personal computer at home, uh, I mean, that's quite an expense to look for, uh, well, who is this, what do you use yours at home for? Well, that's actually a good question. My wife works out of the home, our home. She has an office and in fact she sits in the office and she uses it to compose and print out letters. Okay, well now. So that's a very regular use of it that she has. Uh-huh. And in addition to that I tinker around with it. I'm a computer scientist. Oh.
And so I write programs to do little things I'm actually working on a data base at home just to keep track of things nothing special. And also I'm interested in writing some programs that will kind of like remind me of things like remind me that Wednesdays is trash day and the like. Uh, huh, well, excuse me, I, uh, uh, well I'm a technician, electronics tech. Years ago T I sent me to their, uh, computer school down in Austin. Uh-huh. So, uh, I learned to repair one but you know I never really learned to operate one. Oh, that's a key thing. Well, actually that's a, there's really two issues to that that there's so many software packages available today. That just require no programming. Yes. So that in other words when someone built that software packet they had to use the programming but if they were careful, they could make the use of it totally without understanding how the computer works. Uh-huh. But I think you you really hit the nail on the head. For the average person is exactly what he can use it for. And if your wife isn't working out of the home and sending letters or if you don't want to build a data base to keep track of the nuts and bolts in your garage,
whatever there, your issue is then there really, Well, uh, space is a handicap with me, I live in a motor home. Oh, I see well. And I'm preparing for retirement. I see well, congratulations on that. And I'm not to far from it another year and a half. Yeah, well, actually one other thing I might ought to mention is that they are actually getting quite cheap. Yes, definitely, but just like the computers. Uh-huh. Uh, remember how they started out running three, four hundred dollars. Right. Oh, the calculators you mean. I mean calculators,
I beg your pardon. Yeah, they sure do. Yeah I actually was thinking about upgrading mine very recently and kind of look at the whole spectrum. You can actually buy a whole brand new computer with a not not a necessarily a slow one or inadequate one but a pretty good one for six hundred dollars. You're kidding. No. Including a printer? Well, actually I wasn't including a printer, but you you can buy a printer now for a hundred dollars so make it seven hundred. A hundred? Yeah. Wholly smoke, a respectable one? Yes, uh-huh. Well, see of not being particularly interested I don't keep track of prices on them, but I'm, I'm, that does amaze me.
Yeah, the prices had plummeted, you can buy the computer the guts just the guts with the power supply, the box and the mother board of a type of computer called an eighty, eighty-eight, for about two hundred dollars. Uh-huh. Huh. And then the keyboard is another fifty, the monitor with the card that drives is another hundred and then the disk drive is two fifty. Well, what, what is a a good brand a inexpensive. Well, that's that's the deal is you're not buying brands now, you're buying these knock offs, so there's, probably the way to do it if you really wanted to buy one is there's a magazine called COMPUTER SHOPPER. Uh-huh. It's a big magazine, it's twelve inches narrow, the narrow side and seventeen inches the tall side Oh, wow. and it's probably an inch thick a thousand pages. But the book is, the magazine is full of these mail order, computer mail-order houses and they're all competing with each.
Uh-huh. So you just flip through there until you find a eighty, eighty-eight computer that that's called, it's the original P C. So it's, we call the T I, I'm sorry an I B M P C compatible. And you'll find all these things and you'll find the monitors forty dollars and the card that drives the monitor that goes in the back of the board for twenty-five dollars which is amazing to me. Uh. And you mix and match and then you do it by mail-order. But there's no real brands it's probably a half a dozen companies around the world that are making those mother boards, the main computer, the circuit board. I see. How do you go about getting one of those a catalogs? They're available in, you know, the B Daltons, that that type of thing. Uh-huh. You'll notice that in that it's, it's a, it's a, although it's a magazine it's large. And like I said it's about an inch thick Uh-huh, well, getting back to the P C I'll tell you,
I ya, first of all I don't like a machine that's smarter than me. And secondly, I did learn this much about computers, they they are pretty stupid because they add one and one up and come up with ten. In binary. That's right There's great. Well, anyway that's one ever my favorite jokes. Oh, yeah One and one equals ten. Yeah, that's great. Course it's it's kind of an inside joke, you know. Yeah. You can only tell that to somebody who understands binary. I understand, that's great, that's a good joke. So what, do you, uh, uh, work with a computers a at T I?
I did for years and then I was a scientist over in central research labs and just recently I've changed my job to actually do some of the marketing. Uh-huh. Uh, now I I type that one, but I don't use it anymore. Uh-huh, well I just recently started using one. In connection with my work. Uh-huh. Yes. Uh, I keep track of an inventory here. Uh-huh. And of course now that is where a computer is very handy. Yes, I agree. And, well I, it's my responsibility to see that equipment is sent off to be calibrated. Oh, yeah. See I'm with the Q R A lab. Qualification and evaluation Oh, I see that's fascinating.
so naturally our equipment has to be in top condition and is constantly calibrated, Uh-huh. and they're dated. So I have to keep up with them, uh, and and it's very handy doing it on the computer. Yeah. I just run a printout every week and and it puts me right up-to-date what I'm, what I have to do, what I have to ship, what I should be expecting to be returned. Uh-huh. So a, it it is handy. Right. And I must admit that up until I did start using one, uh, it was, I had very little interest in computers. Yes But they are amazing. Yeah, they certainly are. So let's see, see so I guess with respect to the question, yeah,
I guess we've kind of covered it. I think we did. Great, nice little conversation with you Jack. Yeah, Mike you take care now. Good day. Good luck to you. Thank you. Same to you. Uh, I guess I've had to return something but I'm can't decide, mostly it's been because I didn't like the color, Uh-huh. or, um, I'm not sure whether I've had to return that many things, uh, Well, I'm having a problem right now with a computer that we've just returned. Oh, are you? So, for me it's actually a pretty good topic. Okay, good,
so, we'll talk about that some. Yeah, well, we could talk about that, and then we could talk a bit about, um, just quality of products in general, if they're better or worse like if they last longer or something like that. Right. Okay, I'm going to let you kind of lead the pack, because you sound like you're, let me tell you just a little bit about myself. I, for years I did all that shopping and whatnot, but for the last four or five years I've had eye problem, Oh. and I've had two cornea transplants. Shopping is no fun anymore I can imagine. Well, see I don't, I can't see good enough, you know, and, uh, it's hard to tell what I'm doing, and it's just You can't read labels and you can't,
Oh, I just thought of something we have to return Good. There you go. All right. It, it'll come to us, okay? Okay. Are you ready? Yeah. Laurie, all right Right. All right, uh, tell me about your computer, Laurie, I think that sounds fascinating. Well, we bought a computer because my husband needed to use it to do some work for a consulting project, and we called up the company and asked them details on it. We bought it sort of, your not a name brand because the clones are so much cheaper. Uh-huh. And we called up the company that somebody else we knew had dealt with, and they were very happy with the system,
and they felt they've gotten a good price. And we went in, we explained what we needed and yes we had to go across the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey to get, to meet these people. Uh-huh. And so we went there, we told them about the stuff and the guy said, uh, that the computer would fit our needs. And we these things won't make any sense to you probably but he told us there were, we need user positions to put our own equipment in the computer. Uh-huh. Oh, yes. And it's called a user boards or slots is what it's called. Uh-huh. And he told us there's two sixteen bit slots and two eight bit, sorry, two four sixteen bit slots and two eight bit slots available for the user, and we can put full size cards in there. And so we said, great, you know,
we'll buy it, and we put in our order. And a week later we went back and picked up the computer. And then we got it home and tried to put our own board in it and there's only one slot we could put it in. Oh, lovely. And at this point we only have one board so it wasn't so bad so we used it a bit, but we tried to figure out whether we could put three in because we really need to be able to put at least three in. Huh. And, Oh, no , the computer was supposed to have two. Well, it has them but the problem is that you can't put the type of card that we need to put in it, in it. And even though they told us in advance that you could, Oh, I see. they told us there would be no problem because, you know, the salesman just doesn't really know. I see. In some ways it has more to do with the people who sold it.
They probably didn't know what they were talking about. Right. That's completely it. The salesman didn't know. Right. So, we went back in, and we struck an agreement with the people who said change the casing it comes in so that we could put in extra boards. Huh. Okay. So they did that. And we said are you sure this will work, we don't want you to go through the work and then find out that this doesn't really work anyway, and et cetera, and they're, they were doing it at their own costs. And so we said, fine. And we went back and we talked to the person a second time and things like that, and then we come, we get the computer home, my husband goes to pick it up last week and we couldn't go get it sooner because I just had the baby,
and you know, life's just a little bit complicated. Uh-huh. Uh-huh . And, uh, he goes and gets it, brings it home, first of all they're missing components of it like cables so you can't really test it out. And then second thing, we still can't put the boards in, because they have other things blocking where we need to do it. Oh, jeez . Huh. And see now we're dealing with having to bring it back again and they say they can, you know, do something different and change some connectors and we hope so, but it's a hassle. Yeah, it really is. You you know, it's just this problem with sales people just not knowing what goes on. Right, and, and so much time goes past before you finally get any kind of satisfaction. Right. I think that's the worst part. I,
So, well, actually some things are pretty good with that because I put it on a gold credit card and I just called the credit card company and explained to them the situation, and they said, well, you don't have to pay for it yet. Now that's an advantage, isn't it? Yes. It really is. I think, uh, uh, there's a lot not to be said for credit but that's one thing to be said for credit. It, how , it gets you some muscle where you need it. Yeah. Right. So, and so, you know, And I think that's really important. Well, because these guys if they, um, give us a hard time we're going to say, you, look, you know, if, if you can't fix this to our satisfaction, we're just returning the computer. Yeah. That's right. That's right. And if we do that, I just tell the credit card company, don't pay the charge, even though they've already paid it.
That's right. No . But they'll just, you know, undo the credit that they did to them. Yeah, they will, That's right. They will, Yeah. they will put the kind of clout on them that you can't really do. Right. Yeah. And, We, Hal bought me, uh, uh, small, uh, well, uh, uh, little jam box kind of thing so I'd, my, I have my ninety-three year old mother living with us, and so I, she doesn't remember anything but to keep her entertained, music and some of these things do help. Uh-huh. And I thought well, if I had, uh, a a nice little, um, tape recorder, you know, so that I could put some good music on in there for her every once in a while. And then also so that I can, uh, uh, copy, uh, parts off, I, I do some musicals and things like this and if I can copy sections off that I can use someplace so I figured well this will be good.
Uh-huh. Well, the first, uh, uh, the first time I turned it on, uh, I was recording, and the next thing I knew the tape was chewed up in the, thing. Oh, no. Okay, so after that then you couldn't get a you couldn't get a tape to play at the right speed in that side. Uh-huh. And then on the other side, when I, when I, uh, I loaned it to my daughter the other day to take it over to, uh, to, uh, videotaping they were doing, and she says it's wrong too because the little thing pokes out too far, and so you can't, you can't get it to run the right, the right way, either, Uh-huh. so, uh, What brand is it? Do you know? Yeah, so I, I wish I could tell you I really don't know which brand it is. It's , But I was wondering like, you know in our case where we knew we were buying a copy
we weren't buying, on I B M P C Yeah. and I was wondering if you, No, I think this is a, I think this is maybe a name brand and I suspect that it's probably just a fluke, you know. I have the papers and everything and we're going to get, just take it back but, uh, Uh-huh. Do you buy it at some major store? Yeah, I think just, uh, just, uh, one of the major, I think it was a, you know, I don't, I think it was, uh, you know, like a Highlands or something like this. Highlands chain down there that I don't know up here. Do they have Highlands up there? Nope. Don't they? Well, this is, is was a regular, uh, electronics store, you know. Uh-huh.
So, I don't think, I don't think there will be too much problem but I, I guess I'm not sure whether I think things are not made as well. I think they deliberately sometimes, um, I think a lot of things are not made as well. Don't you? What, what, for instance, what are you, Um, oh, of course, it's hard to think of an exact example, Yeah. but I think that, um, I That's good they're getting a kind of a, attitude of, not, yeah, I just have , well, I like electronic stuff, you know Yeah. for one thing. I know their, work, you know, cars I think are not made, as well as they could be. Well, Yeah. Yeah,
Um, I think that's right. The fact that, because I , they want people to replace it after, a couple of years. Right. The fact that they, that they have competition with the Japanese and whatnot sometimes, uh, dwells on a fact that, you know, uh, I've had, I've known people who have had Toyotas for years that have had almost no repair work to do on them. Uh-huh. Well, they may cost a little more, but they don't have to take them to the shop every other day. Yeah, I had a Toyota and I loved it. Yeah. My Toyota did, really well. It does the, it did a good job, so, part of it is that we need to develop more of a, of a pride in, in, uh, the kinds of things we do so we make them better. Good. Yeah.
And it kind of has to start from the top and, and go or from the bottom maybe and go clear up. People, Well, I think part of the problem comes in sort of shoddy workmanship. The people just don't care about, what they're doing. No. Yeah. You know, the whole, nobody cares, no, nobody's, really paying, Yeah. Attitude is, is just get me my dollar so I can go do what I want to do, and, on, Right, give me my paycheck, so I can go home. what I'm doing, right. I think that's too bad. And it's a shame too because, uh, when you get right down to it most things, there isn't any, if you do a good job, nobody can pay you enough There isn't, any way to get paid enough. Yeah. But if you do a good job, you feel enough satisfaction, so whatever you're paid is enough. Yeah,
and also I think, well, I do research and so I'm used to sort of being underpaid for whatever work gets done. Uh-huh. But, and you get satisfaction out of it. That's right, And, But I think a lot of it, you know, I think things come both from the, uh, individual side and also from the company side I think they underestimate how much, how much value the satisfaction because the companies that, let, give the attitude that, well, you know, you're the last one hired so you'll be the first one fired, and we just want you to do your day's work, Yeah. and we don't really care about you, as an individual. Yeah. When you've got that type of attitude on it, the people don't care, about their work. No . And so, It it probably basically goes right back into the home though unfortunately. Starts with the one person that, you know,
and so you need to really work hard at helping your kids to understand that there is value just in work for itself without any pay, you know. Little value just in whatever you do. Yeah. The, the, the that the value is in doing it well Doing a good job of it. and, Okay, Jay, where do you live in Texas? I live in Dallas, In Dallas. uh, right at the intersection of the busiest highway in the state. And a, uh, it goes east and west, and a north south tollway. What's that, the I Thirty and Central express? It's, no, it's called Six Thirty-Five's the highway. Okay, yeah. It's the looper that goes around the city Right. and then, uh, the tollway is called the Dallas North Tollway.
Yeah. Just moved here about, uh, oh, uh, one, about a month ago after twenty-one years, two miles to the east. Oh, is that right? Oh, how about that? So, it's a very different house from the typical Dallas, uh, house. It's a new home? It's about eight years old, About eight years. it's, uh, it's a duplex type thing. Uh, very modern and, uh, very open and airy light. Oh. Uh-huh. So it's different than the, than the long Texas ramblers. Right, uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well we we live in a brick story and a half, uh, What's your house like? Cape Cod style, I guess you'd call it. Oh, great, yeah.
And, uh, have a big sun room on the back of it. So it's got a lot of openness and light, also? No, Oh, it doesn't? it doesn't have Well, that's what my wife really wanted and so, uh, With openness and light? Yeah that's, I understand that, I would love that too Uh, our, our last house wasn't too bad, but it was just too traditional, Uh-huh. and so, if, uh, Yeah, this is very traditional. the the next time, uh, probably a year and a half from now, we're going to try to build. Oh, uh-huh.
So make one really, uh, contemporary and, and very modern and very open and very light. Uh-huh. Do you have children at home? No, I have three in college. Three? Oh, boy. They, they usually, get back for the, at least two of them for the summer, so, But, You still need space, plenty of space Still need a little bit of space. We, we have a lot less than we had, uh, recently. Uh-huh. Huh Already cut back. Uh-huh. Well, How big is your place? It's, uh, oh, about twenty-five thousand, twenty-five hundred square feet, I guess. Oh that's good size.
It's four bedrooms and two baths and that, Yeah. We, we had, It has one wing built on that's a kitchen family room, and then the big room on the back. Uh, Yeah, we had four bedrooms, two and a half baths, uh, in the place we just left. Uh-huh. So down, now we're down to, two and two. Two and two, uh-huh. Uh-huh. So it won't be terribly wonderful when the kids are home, but it won't be that long, because we, not for sure, you know, how long they're going to stay or whatever. Right, uh-huh. So, I was just reading an article, uh, that there were nineteen thousand properties available in Texas, uh, for sale by the Resolution Trust Corporation? Oh, yes. Repossessed Yes,
and if you get in the, if, if you can find one in the right area you can really pick up a steal. I, I guess so. Uh, we, we really didn't go that route and didn't look. Uh, but, uh, the planning of them and the, the housing market probably still going to even go lower. There are many, many houses for sale just by the regular route. Uh-huh. So, uh, That's discouraging if you own property Yeah. And we just decided, uh, uh, sell. And we got, we got a pretty good price, uh, for, for what we had. Uh, not as good as it would have been say three or four years ago. Few years. Uh-huh. But that, uh, that was just the timing. Right. Well our daughter and son-in-law moved up, back up here. He's from Texas, but course she's from here, uh, about a year and a half ago, and had their house on the market down there, Uh-huh. and they never did sell it.
So they stayed six months, and she got her job back, and he got a job down there. Oh. Because, Yeah, they're not moving very well. Huh-uh. For sure. Nope. And that's a good, uh, example of it. They live in Rowlett. Oh, yeah. I know where that is. I've been, we've been here for twenty-five years. Have you? I'm from Missouri, and my wife's from Kansas, so I I teach at a college here. Uh-huh. So it's, uh, it's sort of home now.
Uh-huh. So, What college are you teaching at? I'm at, uh, one of the uh, it's called Brookhaven College. It's one of the community colleges. Oh. And it's just about two miles to the west of where I'm living. Uh-huh. So it's very nice, very convenient. The only one I know is Richardson Yeah. Now Richland College is out, it serves Richardson and, uh, Garland. Garland, uh-huh. And that's about nine miles to the east of here. Yeah. So, uh, anyway, well, it's good to hear from you. Well I enjoyed talking to you. And I hope we, hope we did them some good, uh, on their little computer dealy. I hope so
Right. And, uh, have a good life, the rest of it. Okay, thank you, same to you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Okay, what are your suggestions in making a family reunion successful Have a big family, I guess, that's a start. Well I guess so. Have you had any in the well how old are you? Twenty-five, so, Okay so you you have been to some family reunions, perhaps. I just got married. Right,
every four years on one side of my family they plan on having, uh, like my grandparents and all their brothers and sisters and then all their kids and grandkids. Now how long in advance do they, uh, let them know? Well, we plan on it, it's like the third weekend in August, Uh-huh. so it's every four years and so, So they all know it. Yeah and then, you know, arrangements are made like during the Summer for you know, um, food and who's, who's staying where, because a lot of people are from down here, in Texas. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And, uh, a lot of my family is in Indiana. That's where I'm originally from. Yes. So, um, we usually meet like at my uncle's cottage in the, um, at the lake and, uh, make a couple days of it. Well that sounds like fun, do they all have the small children too, that come? Yeah, pretty much.
So all ages. Yeah and, uh, you know, there's some my age and then there are some a lot younger, an, about four generations, I guess. Well my husband has, uh, on one side has an extended family, Uh-huh. and they don't ever plan it as, like you do. Uh-huh I think if you can count on it every four years then people have it in mind so they have to start talking about it, or getting their act together about six months ahead to get in touch with everybody, because they're rather socially active too. Uh-huh. Yeah. And so it has, it seems by doing it about six months ahead, they can pretty much get everybody there. If they don't, you know, they'll say, oh we're planning to go so and so that, go to, to a certain place that weekend with somebody else and we're already locked in but six months ahead has seemed to be okay for them. Uh-huh. My family, uh, my parents are the youngest of very large families. Oh. Therefore, they don't have many people left.
Yeah. And, uh, the few previous ones I've had, uh, I haven't known many of those people, but, uh, in the last few years it really has just been our immediate family and that's been very nice, with, uh, I have one sister, and three brothers Uh-huh. and they're only three out of five of us who have children. Oh. So, uh, we get to spend a lot of quality time with each other. Yeah. And that's kind of nice because my husband's family reunions are so large, Uh-huh. and they don't see each other very often, we don't really know many of them. Yeah, that's kind of bad. It really is, they're fun,
they're a lot of fun, Yeah. but, uh, still, uh, they're not done on a regular basis and, uh, you kind of forget what happened, and who they were from the time before. Yeah, it's, it's fun getting together with immediate family. A lot of my cousins are real close and we always get together during holidays and weddings and stuff like that, so. Uh, those are the ones that are in Texas? Uh, no, Or you go to Indiana on that? the ones in Indiana, uh-huh. Uh-huh, where in Indiana? Lafayette. Lafayette, I don't know where, I used to live in Indianapolis. Yeah,
it's a little north of Indianapolis, about an hour. Yeah, yeah, it's very pretty country in there I think, it's gorgeous. Uh-huh, so. Well I, uh, when is your next one, uh, scheduled now. Well it's like, the last one was my high school graduation the next one was when I graduated from college, so I guess about two more years. Yes, well, and do you think you'll have a baby to take back with you Uh, maybe, I don't know, Maybe two more years, I don't know, probably.
I mean you need another milestone, you know. Yeah, I guess that's, that's what, I mean I've been married now for about nine months so that was another milestone, I guess Yes, well I'm sure, and then all of your family probably has not met your husband. Um, yeah, he's from Indiana, Oh, is he? so they all met, yeah. And, and he's living, your both living in Sherman. Yeah. Do you work to T I? Uh-huh. Uh-huh, and does he? No,
he's trying to get in med school, so. Uh-huh, well, we don't either, but, uh, I have a friend who, uh, is working on this project. Oh, really. Yes, and, Are they getting all the data they need? Well, I don't know, uh, I, I have a hard time getting, uh, people on the telephone. Oh really. Uh-huh, getting through to anybody. Sometimes I call off and on all day, Huh. but anyway, uh, I guess we're supposed to be talking about family reunions aren't we But I got off that. Well we've kind of exhausted everything I guess. Yes, well, um, I think we have been talking probably about four and a half minutes.
Oh, okay. And, uh, uh, we both look forward to going to our next reunions, I'm sure. Oh yeah. But it has been fun talking to you. Well you too. Thank you. And maybe I'll talk to you again. Okay, good. Okay, bye-bye. Bye-bye. All right. What, what changes do you think have taken place in the last generation? I guess the biggest one is number of women in the work force. Yeah. Few are, uh, basically staying home and being homemakers, and raising kids exclusively. Uh-huh. Yeah, I, I, I grew up in, uh, sixties and early seventies
and, uh, my mom didn't work at all when I was growing up. She didn't start working until I was, um, well into high school. Uh-huh. So, I, I had the advantage of having a mom at home that nowadays kids, it's a luxury item for mothers to be home with their kids. Yeah, true. Well, mine taught kindergarten but she was always, uh, I guess her schedule was shorter so she was always, uh, home, Always home by the time you got home. yeah. Yeah, that, that statistic I guess has been growing every year it's like something around sixty, sixty-five percent or so now. Uh-huh. Uh, I'm not sure what the future holds for that whether, It seems like there's, it seems that there's a grass roots, um, effort or whatever going on I, I, um, clean houses part-time,
Uh-huh. and almost all the people that I clean for, believe it or not, are mothers that don't work Huh. Um, That's unusual they are, they're all, um, it's, and it's, I think it's kind of a new movement it's going back towards, you know, women have come into the work force in the last twenty, thirty years and now they're wanting to go back to the old days where, you know, women stayed home with the kids, you know, and try to give the kids quality time. Uh-huh. And I, I think that in the future you're, I think you're going to see a lot more, um, women choosing to not work after they have a baby. Yeah. Um, I think with, uh, the, uh, the work force with the, the salaries that a lot of, a lot of the women that I work for have husbands who are, um, vice-presidents of companies and I think with, uh, um, this, it seems like it's more the upper-class people, Uh-huh. um, I don't see it as much, the, like in my situation where I don't, I don't have children yet, but ideally I would like to be able to stay home with my kids. But realistically that's, I'm, I'm realizing that's probably not going to be possible, um, for middle-class people to be able to live just on one income.
Yeah, that is tough. Yeah, we're looking at that now, my wife's about six months along. Uh-huh. I think it's going to be a luxury item to be able to stay home with your kids. Uh-huh. You know, it's going to kind of kind of go along with the B M W in the driveway and, or in the garage or whatever. True. Um, and the quarter of a million dollar home or whatever. Yeah. I'm surprised that the main people you work for are women that do stay home. I would think it would be women that were working full-time. Yeah, believe it or not though the, all the women that stay home are real busy when they are home. Huh. Um, they're real active in volunteer work. Uh-huh. Um, one of the women is real active with, uh, Muscular Dystrophy. And, uh, does a lot of, of work with them on a volunteer basis
but it's still, it's almost like a job, she just doesn't get paid for it. Huh. Well, I guess that's good that they, they've got something to keep them active. Yeah. When, when your wife has her baby, is she going to stay home or is she going to, go back to work? Yeah, we're, we're going to try and have her stay home, for as long as possible. What do you think? That, that, that, I would, I would like to be able to do that. Yeah, we think it's, uh, that important and I, I kind of hope that the trend goes back in that direction. I'm a, a counselor and a therapist, Uh-huh. and I work with adolescents, and I see some of the problems the kids have when they don't have a real good family structure. Yeah, I, I see a difference in the generation of, even the generation before me, uh, were, you know, mom was like, um, Mrs Cleaver, uh, you know, June Cleaver or whatever,
Uh-huh. where the, the attitudes were a lot different. Um, as far as, I think the kids back then seemed to be a lot more, um, there wasn't a lot of the drugs and alcohol and, um, a lot of the, the things that are going on in today's society, Uh-huh. I think morally, um, it seems like there was, people were a lot better back then as far as higher standards. True. Well, the husbands' roles are almost nonexistent in family anymore in terms of being the father figure and with women working so much they're kind of pulled out of it too. Yeah. So, kids are raised around their friends and by the media. Yeah, that's true. And that's, you know, that's contributed, And I think, I think you're going to see a lot more of that in the future. Yeah, maybe that's contributed to a lot of the problems that we see all the time, so. If there was some way for, for women to, to stay home even if they could work, you know, there are a lot of jobs that are coming about, like in computers at home, and those types of things, that would at least in some ways, um, bridge the gap Uh-huh.
Yeah, I, I think that, um, in the future, um, the, the family unit as it, as it once was known, is, is going to be nonexistent What, how do you, what do you think? About? That as far as do you think there's going to be still a family unit or, or do you think that, um, the trend is going more towards single parenting? The balance I don't, the, the divorce rate keeps hovering around fifty percent or so and it got higher than that for a while. Um, that's hard to say. Families are such a strange configuration anymore. Um, I, I see a lot of families where, you know, in the, in the back, I grew up about the same time you did, Uh-huh. and back in those times we pretty much were taught how to be responsible. Uh-huh. Uh, nowadays it's not the case,
kids don't, kids are bombarded with all kinds of junk and one of the reasons, I guess, is because there's so much more income in the family with both parents working. They get bombarded with junk and they don't have to do anything around the house. They never learned to be responsible when, Yeah. the bigger trend called the boomerang kids where they move out for a while and they come back, and you got twenty and thirty year olds who are living at home with mom and dad so, Yeah. you know, you create a bigger, bigger family, generation after generation but not really on purpose. Yeah. So. It's not, not a real functional situation anyway. So, you know, I don't know it's, I don't know that that trend's going to change the single parent type families and the families, as long as we've got so many other crazy things going on in society. Yeah, I, I think that eventually the, the family unit's just not going to even exist anymore. like you said the divorce rate is getting so high that I think there's going to be more single parent families than there are, um, you know, two parent families. Uh-huh.
That's pretty sad. Yeah, it is, I guess unless, unless there's a, a major swing in the change of what's important to people, you know, probably keep going downhill. And I, I don't know we, we feel like that, that we can make it on one income it, it may be tough but we may have to give up on some, some things. I, I think in the long run though your child will benefit from that. Yeah. And it will, it will make the, the strain worthwhile. Yeah, I think so too. Well, I, I need to go ahead and, and wrap it up. Okay. Um, it was really nice talking to you. Well, I've enjoyed it, Stephanie. And, uh, thanks a lot. Uh-huh. Okay,
bye-bye. Bye-bye. Okay, uh, have you, did you, have you grown up in Dallas, Stephanie? Uh, no I've only been here for the last ten years, uh, Oh, where are you from? I grew up most of my childhood in Germany. In Germany. Uh, and, Well, we, we took a lot of vacations while we were there because everything was within driving distance. Now there's a place I'd like to visit So we, we travelled all over Europe. When I was, when I was very young. Unfortunately, a, a little bit too young to really appreciate. Oh, that's neat. Uh-huh. Uh, I was grade school age. Uh, My my husband had a bicycle tour of Europe, or took a bicycle tour about five months right after the second world war and so we've seen lots of pictures of the, of the beautiful, spots and, areas, Um.
That, that would be a, to me, a really nice vacation because I'm, I'm not in physical shape for something like that, but, uh, I, I sure would work on it if I had an opportunity like that. Yeah, that's neat, neat What kind of vacations do you like? Uh, well my husband and I are scuba divers. Oh. So, we both like to go to dive resorts. Uh, we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon, Uh-huh. and we dove there. Uh, but, we, we did about six dives while we were there. And, uh, we were originally planning on going to Cayman, uh, last year Oh, uh-huh. Uh-huh. uh, but, we weren't able to get enough people together for the trip. We had to have, like, eleven people for, this package, uh, deal. Oh, uh-huh. Yeah. Uh, and we couldn't get enough people together, uh, to go, so it ended up falling falling through.
Yeah. We were going to get a really good price. When, when our children were younger, we enjoyed, we lived up in, uh, New York, or New Jersey and, and used to like, uh, traveling into upstate New York and camping Uh-huh. Uh-huh. and we had a little collapsible sailboat and liked to sail and, that sort of thing, but we've never really, uh, did any diving or anything. Little bit of of, uh, uh, oh, water skiing. Snorkeling? Oh, really. But, not much of, uh, of anything else. Um. Uh, Well, my husband and I both like water, Uh-huh. so any, any vacation that we go on is usually, involves, close to the ocean, or, or something like that. It's got to be the water. Right. When, when we were in Jersey, we used to go down to the Jersey beach a lot, and really enjoyed that a lot. It's really, they had, a really nice beach areas there.
Yeah, we, After we moved away from Germany, we moved to New Hampshire. Uh-huh. And I lived there for seven years. Oh, I see. Uh, and I really enjoyed that because, you know, the mountains were real close, That's a really pretty area, too. Uh-huh. we like the, we like the white mountains and, Uh, unfortunately, I didn't really get to go skiing much while I was there. Yeah. I went skiing once. Yeah, we loved the, we loved the, the New Jersey area, too, because the the lakes were really pretty close, you know, you could, you could drive within twenty minutes to an hour and just be at a real nice vacation spot where you could sail and, and just really, Uh-huh. and then we weren't too for from the Appalachian Trail, we did quite a bit of hiking, which is kind of fun. Are you a, you a hiker, or not?
Uh, Not so much, huh? Not, not really so much. If, if, if there was some place that, that we went to where there was hiking involved, I, I would be you know, happy to go hiking, Uh-huh. but we, we never have really planned a vacation around, uh, places to go hiking. So your, your next, your plans are try to find someplace to scuba dive. Yeah. Our next vacation will, will be scuba diving, I'm sure. You have any children? No, not yet. Okay, then that's probably one of the reasons our, we had little children all the time, Yeah. so some of the things are not as, quite as, uh, adaptable. Yeah, it's a, it's a little more, difficult planning a vacation, when you have, have children.
Yeah, it is. You have to try to figure out kinds of things that you can do that they will enjoy, too, and, Yeah. so, I think, Yeah, and diving is something that, especially for small children, uh, I think the, the minimum age for diving is, is probably, legal anyway, would be probably about sixteen. Yeah. Eleven or twelve, I would think, probably but, maybe fifteen even. Yeah. I know that, uh, uh, one of, one thing that happens to us to vacation trips now is that usually that try to involve some of the members of the family. You know, we go wherever somebody is, that we haven't seen for a while Uh-huh. So that, that's kind of, uh, we just came back from, uh, uh, Grand Rapids where we saw one of our sons graduate, from, uh, with his Master's Degree in social work and so that was fun,
and, and the summer we have a, we have a, a reunion in, in Salt Lake area up by Park Cities. Where we're going to camp for a week with as many members of, of a rather large reunion group that, uh, as we can get together so, That, that sounds like a lot of fun. Our family had a reunion last year that was kind of like that, too, Yeah. that there were several hundred, uh, people and they all kind of met at a central place. I, I didn't go, Um. uh, but it would have been nice. It would have been a nice vacation. We, we've we've moved around enough so that we now have people in different parts of the country. I guess my favorite vacation idea would be to somehow figure out something kind of mobile where you could stop and sleep maybe, you know, like a, a small camper. Uh-huh. We've, we've travelled in a big one. I hate them because they're hard to jockey around, you know, but maybe a pickup with the back on, or something like, uh, what's the, like the Volkswagen Vanagon. I've heard is really nice. Yeah. So you could kind of sleep in it sometimes, but you wouldn't want to do it all the time.
Yeah. Uh, we have enough friends here and there, I would just love to just drive through the United States and stop and see people I know, and visit for a day and then go on and, you know. Uh-huh. My dad has been talking for years about, uh, getting a fifth wheel and just picking up, Uh-huh. he's retired Uh-huh. uh, he's in his sixties, and he, uh, would like to just get a fifth wheel and just travel across the country and spend a month here or a couple of weeks there, and just, you know, not, be settled anywhere, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think that would real, just see, see the rest of the country. and I would like to maybe not take great long trips, but, but have your home base, where your home is and then just travel out for, like, maybe, oh, a month, maybe go, Uh-huh. He, he does that quite a bit. And, He, he hasn't lately, though, uh, because he's been ill,
Yeah. uh, but he's been known to be gone for a month or two at a time and, you know, he'll say, this is my itinerary. I'm going here, here and here and I'll be back in about two months Yeah. There are a lot of neat, neat places to visit in America, that's for sure. We've, I haven't been much to the south, I haven't been in, in Georgia or Florida or Mississippi or Alabama. I guess that's, those are the only states I have not visited. But, uh, up the coast, uh, at, uh, uh, in Maryland and around there, where the, where the early history is, there's some Johnstown and, uh, in in that area is just really neat, interesting things to so, you know. Uh-huh. so, Have you been a, to a lot of the different historical sites? Yeah, we took a trip, uh, around to the, uh, Civil War battle grounds and things back in nineteen sixty when it was the centennial or something,
Uh-huh. I believe it was. Uh, had about three kids then I think, but that was a really fun, interesting trip. I we, we read Bruce book before we went, you know, and, so we were ready to look up the places we read about. Yeah, I I think right, right now while my husband and I don't have any kids we'll probably take as many vacations as we can doing things like scuba diving and, and adventurous types of things, Yeah. and then when eventually, when we have kids, Yeah. Now, his, his folks did a lot of traveling across country. You know they went to the Grand Canyon and did things like that. Well, now, camping is fun with kids. If you're, you know, Yeah. once they get a little bigger, not teeny tiny ones, but, even, even some little ones do pretty good but, but when they get a little bigger so they can help, Yeah.
that, that's a fun way to to, uh, cut costs and it's enjoyable, too. Very restful. I mean I find, Yeah, I, I do enjoy camping. Yeah, I find the outdoors very relaxing and, you know, kind of a change. As long as I have a shower nearby, I'm fine And electricity. Yeah Well, I'm with you. I need my creature comforts, too. Yeah. Well, it was great to talk to you. It was nice talking to you, too, Beth. Okay, see you later. Bye-bye. Okay. Bye-bye.
What kind of painting are you planning to do? Well I have wallpaper in both of my bathrooms right now which is really pretty disgusting. Uh-huh. And, um, it's a rent house and I decided it's too expensive to rewallpaper so I decided I'm going to paint. Uh-huh. And I've been buying some magazines and stuff and looking at different ways to paint. And I'm thinking about maybe sponge painting them. Either that or maybe rag rolling. To give it kind of a country look. Oh, what would be interesting. Uh-huh. Yeah, I've never done any of those fancy kinds of paint treatments, but they look very interesting and you get some beautiful effects with them. Yeah. Uh, one of the books that I bought, where it's describing the sponge painting, said you can like layer different colors and, Yes, yeah,
I've seen that done, where there's uh, oh, I saw one that was kind on an ecru undercoat and then it had, a little bit darker sort of peachy color, Uh-huh. and in between there was a sort of a rust, uh, put on very sparingly. Ugh. And it gave the impression of very old weathered stucco. Yeah. Um, what I, what I'm trying to do is I've got yellow tile in both the bathrooms Uh-huh. so I want something that's going to tie that together and I'm changing the, like the towel racks and stuff, the, the fixtures out to make them wood, I'm going to put wood in there. Oh, yeah, that should be nice. So it's going to have kind of a country look. Uh-huh. Um, and I haven't even decided as far as, um, what kind of paint to buy. I don't have an actual instruction book so I'm really in kind of the beginning stages right now.
Well, uh. Um, it's going to be a big experiment. Yeah, I was about to say, you ought to experiment on at least a small part of it before you just tackle the whole thing Yeah. Because you might find that it's beyond, uh, what you're willing to put into it. Although I think it could turn out really nice. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've, I haven't ever done fancy painting but I sure did my share of just regular painting. Uh, I've painted several houses, inside. I, never painted the outside. Uh-huh, inside. What, what kind of, what kind of paint do you normally use? Well, uh, we used a latex, uh, wall paint and then a semigloss enamel for the woodwork and my job was mostly the woodwork. Okay,
uh-huh. My husband would paint the walls and ceilings with the rollers and I got to do all of the masking tape and then all of the little fine, uh, trim work, where I'd use a small brush and, uh, try to keep the paint from dripping on the windows and things like that Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well we only have only one of our bathroom has a window in it so I'm hoping that, um, it won't be too much of a, a problem. Uh-huh. Um, I'm wondering if my bigger problem is getting the wallpaper taken down first. Because I, I think, Well I was going to ask if you planned to paint over it or try to strip it. No, I'm, I'm planning on taking it off. I have heard that they've got these steamers you can rent now, which make it much easier to get wallpaper off. Um. Um, I tried to get wallpaper off once twenty years ago, oh, with a just a scraper and wet sponge and it took forever. I would not recommend that method. Okay. Uh, if if you can rent a steamer, if it's modern wallpaper it should come off without too much trouble. Well that's something that, that's worthwhile checking into then. 'Cause I,
If it's really old, you don't know what it's put on with. It, it's hard to tell, it's, the patterns look like they're nineteen sixties style. Yeah. And I know the house, um, was built around the mid fifties. Uh-huh. So it may be the original wallpaper Could be, yeah. Um, if it's vinyl it should be easier to strip too. If it's paper it will probably shred. Um, in one bathroom it's, um, it's probably paper, uh, it's silver, silver and yellow, and white. Um, uh-huh Well the wallpaper that I was trying to remove was black, this was in a bathroom too. And the, the tiles were sort of a mottled grey and had a little trim strip of maroon and white and the, the wallpaper in that bathroom had a black background and then it had vivid, uh, almost neon colors of hot pink and turquoise, and lime green and silver, and, uh, a little bit of yellow that looked like coral sands and sea horses and things like that
Um, that's kind of an odd color for a bathroom. Oh it was awful, it was absolutely hideous and, and we had a dinner party before we started renovating it and a, a guest went in there and he said it's a good thing I went to the bathroom before dinner because if I had had something to drink and went in there I would think I was having hallucinations Really. Well I, I've also been thinking about, after looking at all these magazines, um, these design magazines and stuff, I'm thinking about maybe painting the bedroom walls too, in a color that will kind of, um, tie in our, um, our, um, our, uh, comforter, with a color that's kind of a, um, burgundy and green and yellow and blue and beige floral design. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Um, and I'm not really quite sure, I don't know if maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew. Well I'd say tackle one project first and see how it goes and if you discover you like it then you can always upscale. Yeah, well the bedroom would probably be the easier of the two because it would be just plain painting. Sure. It wouldn't be any kind of special, um, special effects type thing. Yeah. It would be just plain paint.
Well it's not hard to do if you get everything prepared ahead of time. Because if you, uh, use drop cloths to cover everything and you use masking tape to trim out, uh, all the parts that you don't want to slop over onto, you don't have to be quite as precise about how you do it and it can be done a whole lot faster. And with rollers and, uh, modern latex paints, Um, okay. you can wash up easily because they're water soluble. Uh-huh. And they dry fast so you really don't have to be disrupted for more than about a weekend. If you have some help. Um. And then if that, if you discover the little tricks and tips about, you know, how you get through corners and how you do trim and, uh, how long to leave the masking tape down, because if you leave it too long and it dries it can flake when it, when you pull it up. It, it peels the paint off when you take it off, yeah. Well, not, if you leave it on for weeks, it will do that. If you take it up the next day it should be fine. You want it to get dry, but not, uh, just real hard. Yeah, okay. You don't want the gum on the back of the masking tape to get dried to hard. That's the problem.
Yeah. It will come up a lot easier if you don't wait too long. And I've, I was told, I always used the nice wide masking tape, but I've heard from people who tried to get by and skimp on narrow masking tape that it was more trouble than it was worth. Because it, it rips as you pull it off for one thing Oh really, okay. and then you end up tediously scraping these tiny little shreds of masking tape Um. And the whole point of using it is to save yourself work. You can do a little faster painting and much easier clean up if you use the masking tape. But use, use good, uh, stuff and buy it at a paint store where they have the right brands, that will go down and come up easily. Okay. Well I really appreciate all the helpful tips, I think you are, just made my project a lot easier Well I wish you very good luck with it and I will tell you that I have retired from the painting business. The last time I had something done was my kitchen cabinets and I decided that was too much to tackle, I'd hire a professional.
If you were, if you were closer I'd, I'd, I'd tell you you could come over and supervise Well if I were closer I might. Oh, well I hope your project turns out great and I, really think that it's exciting that you're going to try the sponge painting. I think that could give it a really a, Well, we'll see how it goes, I may just be flat painting over it. Well, of course that's the other advantage of paint. If you don't like it all you do is put on another coat. Yeah. I guess we'd better go because our time looks like it's about up. Yeah, I, I need to go to the dentist, so. Okay, bye-bye. It's was nice talking to you Kathleen. Thank you. Bye-bye. I think I get most of my news, uh, in headlines from the radio,
and then I follow-up by reading the newspaper and news magazines about things that attract my attention. Well, I, I do about the same, I guess, but in a different fashion. I, I, I'm from New York originally and now that I live in Florida, I live in the Florida in the winter and then go back up north in the, in the summertime Uh-huh. and I, I feel that the, the only legitimate paper although it might sound, a little elitist is the NEW YORK TIMES. I've always read the NEW YORK TIMES when I was younger, and I try now that it has a national edition, I read that. I also read, uh, I, I, I guess I do watch, uh, MCNEIL LEHRER on P B S because I, I lean to that coverage, Uh-huh. and, and I guess I'm , I like them but they take so long. I don't always have time Yeah. Well, there , it's a whole hour show. Actually, it's an hour show each evening,
and, and, we, we turn it on when we start dinner. We seem to start dinner around six and finish it up. Uh-huh. I find that I'm leaning on, uh, I travel a great deal, uh, even overseas, and I find that I lean on, uh, C N N quite a bit for concise and quick stuff. And, I'm, I, I'm quite satisfied with the way they put it out. I mean, I, I don't believe everything they say, but it's, it's coverage, you know. Yeah, I think C N N does a pretty good job. I had not watched them very much except when I was abroad, until the Gulf War. Yeah. Yeah. And they seemed to have the best coverage. They had more information sooner than, most of the other networks. Uh. Well, yeah, I, I, I, uh, Peter Arnet was reporting direct from, uh, Iraq.
I think this is scandalous the way everybody's picking on him. Yeah. I, I think that what he, he reported what he saw Yeah. and if you didn't like it, that was just too bad, you know. Well, uh, I know that the coverage he was allowed to present was slanted, but I think they said that frequently enough. That, uh, you shouldn't criticize the man for giving us one perspective. Yeah , oh, yeah, I mean, uh. No. Uh, That, that's right, I think so. And, and I guess when it comes to, um, to magazines, I don't read, I used to when I was younger, I subscribed to TIME and U S NEWS AND WORLD REPORT. I, I have seemed to slide away from that and rely more on the local paper or, I, I, I also subscribe to something called WORLD PRESS, which is a magazine that only talks about other, excerpts from the WORLD PRESS, Uh-huh. which sort of gives you a different slant, than,
it's not as slanted as the NEW YORK TIMES or as biased perhaps as the local paper. Yeah. But, uh, that I guess, and the radio. Uh, I listen to P B S radio a lot and I also listen to, uh, these twenty-four hour news stations, when I'm driving. I, Yeah, we have a C B S twenty-four hour station that I listen to on the way to and from work Yeah. and, Do you read, are you from Southern or Northern California? Northern. I'm from, uh, the peninsula, So well, Yeah, is that, what is that, Palo Alto. the San Francisco paper out there is, uh, the major paper? Well,
it's horrible. Yeah, and that's a terrible paper. The San Francisco paper is just wretched. So I subscribe to the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. Is that pretty good? Palo Alto is about midway between. Well it's a whole lot better than that San Francisco paper and, Oh the, what is that, the CHRONICLE isn't it? Yeah, there's the CHRONICLE, and the EXAMINER, Oh. but they're, uh, both run by the same Oh yeah, they they really are probably the worse papers I've ever read. I, uh, uh, They're just horrid Yeah. so we read,
Well, can you get the L A paper up there? That's a pretty decent paper isn't it or, Uh, we can, but I don't like it. Yeah. So we subscribe to the NEW YORK TIMES and the WALL STREET JOURNAL and uh, MERCURY NEWS. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's another one I read, I forgot that. I read the WALL STREET JOURNAL, not as in depth as I used to, because they, their articles seem to be getting even longer and longer but, Yes, well again, I read that, uh, two columns on the front. Yeah. I, I think I, I agree with you that the problem seems to be they don't have enough time to do all the stuff. I feel pretty well versed in, in what I'm doing because I, I do spend more time on that than I do, say, on sports, or although I watch that, Uh-huh.
I spend a lot of time reading about these things. I'm quite interested. I find it very exciting to, for the coverage we have now, today. Yes and I think we do get pretty good coverage. I don't feel that the American people is being shortchanged by the, uh, the news coverage. If anything, they, I think they We almost have too much. Well, I don't know, I, I hear a lot of criticism about listening to these, the Dan Rathers of the world and, and and taking their word for it, or their comment, actually, they, I think they slant things but, Well, I cannot stand Dan Rather. I remember him when he was a local newscaster in Houston. No kidding! Oh, wow! And I hated him then. I didn't know that. Yeah? And I would not watch that man for money.
Yeah. And he and Barbara Walters just really turn my stomach. Yeah, was, was he, So I watch Peter Jennings, and, uh and Tom Brokaw. Sort of alternately. Yeah. How do you feel about it? I guess I, I got to say, if that's the subject, if the subject is do I feel that we're well enough equipped to, I don't know if, if it said that. I feel I'm well enough equipped. Do we get enough news or something like that? Yeah. To, Do we get, uh do we get the news that we want? Yeah. And I do. I really think. Yeah, I think I do too. I think you have to let, you got to segregate some of it.
Yeah. Well, that's about all I have to say Okay, well nice to talk to you. Nice talking to you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, we, uh, taxes, everyone thinks taxes are too high I'm sure. But, uh, I think we do get quite a good value for the tax dollars we spend in most cases. What do you think? Uh, yeah, I, I think so. I, I'm, uh, I think I'm, I think I'm, uh, a little out of the ordinary in that, that I, I, uh, I think I'm more worried about the deficit, the national deficit than, than, uh, a lot of other people are and think that we need to, we need to either raise our taxes or, or cutback on something and I don't know what to cutback on to, to get, to get that, to get that settled. At this stage it's hard, to tell. And, and, uh, and, uh, I know I'm a real, a real, uh, out of it in terms of taxes so I'm I'm, uh, think that the, we really ought to seriously consider what an income tax might do that, uh, for Texas and, and,
Well, at this stage I think we've taxed property almost to the limit because, like the, the property taxes on the homes have reached the point that it's precluding people from being able to own a home because of the cost of the taxes on them. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I know I live in Richardson Yeah. and it's up over two thousand dollars a year for taxes on my house. Yeah, yeah. But now we're getting public services, the schools, the hospitals and if it weren't for the taxes we're putting in there, uh, look what the schools could cost you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, now I'm, uh, uh, oh, I, we'd, when we moved to Richardson, one of the reasons we chose it was for the, uh, for the schools. And, and realizing that that, that, that quality of schools might well have higher taxes than other places but that we were willing to, uh, to go for that, because we supported the, Yeah. Then again the, the community college system here is excellent for the dollar spent, and the public, colleges also, the tuition has got to be among the lowest in the country.
Yeah. Uh, Yeah. one of the, uh, I believe, I don't know which one it is, uh, down there whether it's Hobby or, uh, the other ex-governor down there that are proposing doubling the tuition. Well if you double the tuition, it would still be considerably less than the public school tuition in most other states. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. That would provide, uh, possibly some relief there to utilize some of the property taxes for other things, see. Yeah. The so-called sin taxes on liquor and the cigarettes and such as that generate a considerable amount, but I eventually I think you may tax people out of smoking even. I, I don't, I don't know about that, I, I, Yeah Well, I quit ten years ago so I, I couldn't afford to start again I see. Okay.
No, uh, Yeah, well, that, that, that would be true. That would be true. But, I know, uh, my children would give up eating before they gave up their cigarettes I think. Huh. But all the various taxing authorities that come through, I think the one tax I resent the most though is the additional sales tax for DART which is probably never going to be in existence in my lifetime. Yeah, and, and even if it is, isn't going to, uh, uh, provide you with any, any services in that it's not doing to provide a route from your, your home to a business, for instance, you know. Well, this, this is a thing I think it's like, uh, back east. You had to start your public transportation when you started your cities. You can't come in afterward and really be successful or economical at it. If we had been like a Chicago or a New York City or Philadelphia or someone like that, and had a public transportation system starting in the horse and buggy days and when land was cheap and, uh, construction costs were cheap, you could afford it. Yeah. Yeah. But now, digging tunnels under Central Expressway and things like that becomes cost prohibitive. And,