I fully understood the value of honesty and hard work at the age of 7.
Back in my childhood days (50’s), I didn’t get an allowance. I had to work for my money.
Ralph and Ada had a backyard garden.
They grew snap peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, okra, and a few other veggies.
Since they were mobility challenged, I towed a wagon around town, going door-to-door, selling their bounty for them.
Doesn’t sound so tuff?
That may not sound like much. But at a time when times were still rough for a lot of people, selling a pint of blackberries for 50¢ was like trying to peddle igloos in Antarctica.
And pushing okra in Pennsylvania, well, it ain’t the South I tell ya.
Still don’t much care for okra.
But I had to sell everything Ada put in my wagon if I wanted to get paid. A nickel for a pint, a dime for a quart. But only if the wagon was empty when I returned.
And the money matched her hand-written inventory.
And Ada sure knew how to pack my Radio Flyer.
Many times I had to unpack half the stuff to get to that little pint of peas on the very bottom then stack it back up.
Still doesn’t sound so tuff?
Pulling a loaded wagon all over half the town?
At the age of 7-8?
Balancing that precarious load across cracked sidewalks and up and down steep gravel driveways? Being chased by dogs?
Sometimes bullies?
I earned every penny, I tell you. And went back the next Saturday to do it all over again.
I just wish I had seen a glimpse of the future back then.
I used the money I earned from Ralph and Ada to buy Showcase #9 (8/57), the first Lois Lane Tryout issue that sold for $13,225 in 2003.
It was used to line a canary cage in January 1958.
I actually owned Adventure Comics #247 (4/58). You know, the First Appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes that sold for $19,200 in September of 2019.
Traded for a cherry popsicle three months after I bought it.
Cherry popsicles now at Walmart are $5.82 for an 18-pack.
And I still don’t eat okra.