2003-02-04 - 12:29 p.m.

The first scam

After reading about others who have been caught by cheap marketing tricks, I thought back to the first one that caught 800 and me. I say 'first' because we bit on others as the years passed, but they had to be much more attractive, and the older we got the fewer we would even listen to. Just tossed the info into the round file. we haven't been scammed for a long time. Lack of money has kept us out of lots of tricks, but lack of money got us into the first. It was our first year of marriage, and I was expecting 1s. Money was very scarce and I had no maternity clothes. I knew how to sew a little and had already sewn by hand some flannel kimonos for the baby.

When we got a letter in the mail saying we had won a great prize, a $200 dollar check to apply to a sewing machine, it seemed the perfect answer. We didn't have a phone, so we must have called from R and J's in Quincy or replied by mail because here came a salesman.

Naturally the $200 check barely made a dent in the price of the sewing machine and we were very disappointed because we knew there was no possible way to buy one. 800's monthly wages were $400 and that was already stretched pretty thin. But just by chance the salesman happened to have a used machine in his vehicle that he would sell very cheaply for only $6 a month. I don't even remember what the total price was. We paid on that thing for a couple of years so it must have been well over $100 or had a fantastic interest rate or both! The machine folded up into a dark gold wooden box about 1 ft by 2 ft by 2ft. It was operated by a lever 6 or 8 inches long that extended down and was pressed by a knee. Setting it on a table made it too high so I would set it on our only folding chair.

However since we lived in a 27 ft trailer, at least it didn't take up much room and I did make several maternity tops with it. It sewed very raggedly and the thread caught and knotted often. That must be where I started to hate sewing and my opinion has never changed much. It would probably be worth alot now as an antique. I don't know where it is, maybe in the rafters of the garage or in little sis' basement. My mom traded me her portable Singer (searcjed the internet and found it may be a 128 VS3 from the 50's or earlier) when we went to Prairie and I sewed 1d lots and lots of little A line dresses with Mom's. Mom's is right outside this downstairs door in the stairwell and altho I can't get it adjusted well enough to sew anymore, a repairman probably could. It truly is an antique and has all the little attachments and doodads in various green rubbery boxes.

Anyway the first sewing machine was the first in a list of scams that we fell for. With each stumble, we grew wiser. Someone once asked a famous man how he came to make such wise decisions. 'Good judgment', replied the judge. 'But how did you learn that'? pressed the quizzer. 'Bad judgment,' came the answer.

The most important thing I learned is this. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

EE's devotional

newAutumn Leaves

previous - next