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making fourteen to eighteen foot rowboats, complete with live-bait wells and the other local accessories. They were excellent boats, deemed better than commercially produced ones. Trouble was, Buck could never get one for himself. As soon as he'd finish a boat, somebody would buy it from him for about $750 (probably more, now). And poor Buck would start a new one. Finally he woke up to the fact that if he spent full time at boat building instead of working for the lumber yard, he'd be making more money. Even doing it in spare time netted him almost as much as the lumber job. So against his wife's rather violent protests, Buck quit his job, bought a few more tools, such as an electric saw, to speed things up, and went into small boat building on a full time basis. Well, not exactly full time. He works possibly six hours a day, and then devotes the balance of his time to his hobby. His hobby? You guessed it. He's building a big motor cruiser in his back yard—for himself. § CASE HISTORY No. 6. Here's one for a couple of mature years, if you fill the following requirements: (1) a liking for young people, (2) a rather large town or country house. You simply start a Youth Hostel. It can be done in any State in the Union, either in the country or in town, village, or city. A Youth Hostel consists of sleeping quarters, usually in dormitories, for young people of both sexes who are hiking, bicycling or horse back riding about the country. They turn up in the evenings between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., bringing their own sleeping sacks. They pay an overnight fee of $5.00 to $7.50 between April 1st and November 1st and between $7.50 and $10.00 between November 1st and April 1st. Your hostel can have accommodations for as many young people (usually teenagers) as your property allows. Some have facilities for hundreds, some only a dozen or so. They check out in the morning by 9 o'clock and you are not bothered with them during the day. They make their own beds, sweep up the dormitories after themselves. Additional methods of making money on the Youth Hostelers is to offer meals, and lunches to take with them; or to offer cooking facilities and sell them groceries and such other items as they might need. These young people are not of the hoodlum variety—ever. The American Youth Hostels organization is well founded and composed of thousands of young people (and sometimes not so young) who are interested in enjoying nature, in hiking and bicycling through the country. How do you go about opening a Youth Hostel? Converting your house or even barn into an acceptable one? Write National Headquarters, American Youth Hostels, Inc. 14 West 8th Street, New York 11, N.Y. They'll be glad to give you full information. Once you've opened a hostel you are listed in the A. Y.H. manual which takes care of all the advertising you'll need and at no cost to you. Every Youth Hostler carries this manual and when in your part of the country will make a beeline for your establishment. The United States is behind the rest of the Western World in developing youth hostels. Countries like Germany, Austria, France and England have literally thousands of them. We are far behind and the American organization wishes to catch up. It's a pleasant manner of picking up some extra money, if you're retired and, as we say, like young people. § CASE HISTORY No. 7. While we're on this subject of liking young people, we might as well bring up the case of Mrs. Lubber, whom I met several years ago at the home of my sister in Oklahoma. I had stayed with my sister for several weeks and in the way of payment suggested that she and her husband come with me for a week in New Orleans to take in the Mardi Gras. I hesitated about her three children, since Mardi Gras isn't exactly the sort of shindig for youngsters, but Vivian had a solution. She called in Mrs. Lubber. The children, at that time, were two, four and eight years of age but that didn't faze Mrs. Lubber a moment. She was what Vivian called a "Mother Replacement" and that's exactly what she was.
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