She stepped into the house and took over everything. Cooking, shopping, cleaning, laundry, getting the children off to school. Everything.
Mrs. Lubber was a woman, I would say, of about fifty years of age. As I understand it, she'd had several children of her own, now grown. She and her husband were "retired" and she used this method of picking up extra money to stretch out his small pension. She made about $250 a week, plus, of course, her keep while taking over a house and family. She loved children, they loved her. Actually it wasn't "work" for her in the ordinary sense of the word.
Evidently, Mrs. Lubber was an institution in Vivian's town. Every couple who had children whom they wanted to leave for any length of time from a week to a month or even longer, would simply call in Mrs. Lubber to take over. Originally she'd had ads in the local newspaper but now that was no longer necessary. Every woman in town who could afford her services, periodically, knew of her. Mrs. Lubber had far more business than she could handle. In fact, amusingly enough for this gentle, motherly looking type, she was beginning to branch out. When she had a job she couldn't handle, because she was busy, she turned it over to one of her two sisters AND CHARGED THEM A PERCENTAGE! And that's commercializing motherhood (even though only a "Mother Replacement") if I ever heard of it.
My sister's town is a small one but the situation that has brought on "Mother Replacements" is nationwide.
Let's face it. Children are often a handicap in the world as we find it today. I am not saying that this is not a deplorable situation, I think it is, but it is nevertheless real. To maintain the standard of living which we have been told is necessary, too often both husband and wife must work, even though several children are present in the family. And again, the pressures of modern life are so great that unless both husband and wife have periodic "vacations" from their young ones, they often find themselves unable to cope with them.
In America servants are so expensive that only the quite wealthy can usually afford them and this has led to a great boom in such institutions as baby sitters, day nurseries, and "Mother Replacements."
 
You know of so many examples of these that I am not going to list further case histories, however, I might mention that if you are interested in a small income, after retirement, that as a rule parents prefer an older woman, or even a couple, to the teenagers with whom they usually have to put up.
You might well consider one branch or another of this "surplus" children situation. Pay is usually $20 to $25 per hour for baby sitting, and often parents will bring the children to your house. You can watch several of them at once. I know of quite a few people who have "retired" on no more income than that realized from a full time baby sitting business.
§
CASE HISTORY No. 8. If you have a bit of capital you might consider Mrs. Mauser, of Lake Hill, New York. She is one of probably tens of thousands of elderly folk who have guaranteed themselves a retirement income by operating a guest house, or tourist home.
Opening a hotel, a motel, or a boarding house can parley up into quite a bit of money, but if you have a house, or enough capital to acquire one, in a suitable location, and it contains sufficient rooms to convert several into guest rooms, you have a source of income very dependable indeed.
Obviously, your location should be in a town, village, or along a highway where tourists come and, preferably, where there is a shortage of hotel and motel rooms. Although there are many people who prefer a guest house to a regular hotel, even when the hotel rooms are as cheaply priced.
Mrs. Mauser took over an old farm house in Lake Hill which is a charming town in the Catskills and quite near the art colony of Woodstock. There are few more beautiful places in the United States and not only does Mrs. Mauser fill her rooms in the summer season (in fact she's packed in summer season) but she also has guests for the turning of the leaves in autumn, for the beauties of snow in the winter, and for apple blossom time in the spring.
Her place is so popular that advertising is no longer necessary, but the average person with a guest house usually runs a short ad in the resort sections of the nearest big town newspapers. Most
 
business is conducted on a reservation basis although you sometimes pick up a motorist going through.
Prices? Never less than $40 for a single, even out of season. In season, and in a popular resort, you'll get as high as $80 a night for a double. It's according to the part of the country you're in, the season, and how well you are able to do up your rooms.
CASE HISTORY No. 9. I think it appropriate here to close out the Home Town Chapter with a retirement case in which I was personally involved. I was born and raised in Oklahoma during my earlier years. My home was in Eastern Oklahoma. The area is considered a virtual "bargain paradise" and as far as I am concerned the tag fits. You can still purchase there a luxurious home for $200,000 and buy acreage for $1000 to $3000 per acre. With the development of numerous lakes in this area it is now becoming a resort and retirement paradise.
I return to Oklahoma at every opportunity to see my relatives and my "homeland." Especially do I spend time there in the Autumn. I try to see Oklahoma University's great Sooner football team play as often as I can. During one of these visits almost three years ago I met one of my fellow students, Calvin Brooks, from High School days. This was during the early days of World War II. He had been living the itinerant "Okies" life since his discharge from the Army. Calvin would go to California during the summer and work in a cannery. In the Fall he would try to make the West Texas Cotton Harvests. In between he would "roughneck" it a little bit in the oil fields. Only about four to six months of the year was he able to be with his wife and children in Oklahoma and pursue his favorite sports, hunting and fishing. He lived off the savings realized from his out of state jobs. This Nomadic existence was not Calvin's idea of a good life.
Calvin was not necessarily an ambitious fellow but he certainly was a likeable person. This particular fall day Calvin was home from a West Texas ginning job because rains had held up cotton harvesting. He invited me to accompany him on a fishing trip to one of the nearby lakes.
While reeling in quite a string of fish we discussed our lives
 
during the period we had been separated, his hand to mouth existence, his general frustration because of the perpetual separation from family and pleasurable pursuits and my gallivanting around the face of the earth living it up in grand style. Calvin wasn't so footloose and wanted to settle down to something solid, something that would assure his wife and children the better things in life.
I proposed that he set up a year round fishing camp on one of the lakes much after the fashion of many I had visited in Florida. Those in Florida sometimes made money into the hundreds of thousands of dollars some years. Why couldn't he do just a fraction as well here on one of these scenic lakes? The climate of Oklahoma presented a different problem however.
Not very far away was a lakesite on a very highly travelled highway. Calvin took a long term lease on an easily accessible site for only $250.00 a month. He reclaimed a lot of old oil drums that could be had for the asking. He made them seaworthy and on them constructed a rather large hut. He made several ports in the floor and an outside walk around. He anchored the structure out in 25 feet of water with a floating accessway. He built another small hut on shore as a sort of business shed. Out on the highway he erected a couple of signs reading, "THE BEST FISHING SPOT ON THE LAKE. FISH ALL YEAR LONG, DAY OR NIGHT. ANY KIND OF WEATHER. USE MY FLOATING FISHING HUT. FULLY HEATED DURING WINTER. FISH ALL DAY FOR ONLY $5.00."
Calvin keeps his fishing area well baited, that is, "chummed up." It literally teems with fish. He now employs two attendants. On the side he sells fishing equipment, bait, licenses, lunches and soft drinks. Fishing is so good that the average fisherman stays only two or three hours before he has hooked quite a string of fish. On some days he accommodates over a hundred fishermen. He is now in the process of building a second fishing hut to keep up with the demand for this type facility. Also he plans to go into the boat rental business. In any event he has gotten out of a miserable and hopeless rut. He stays home with his wife and children the year around. He owns a comfortable home. He can enjoy the finer
 
things of life. He does not have to work unless he chooses to. Above all he has an above average income and is assured of it as long as people are inclined to go fishing.
COULD YOU DO THIS? Regardless of your age or sex, undoubtedly you could.

Next:  Chapter 8 - Mexico