A few days ago I came across the ledger I used to track our credit card charges and expenses after we moved to Indiana, Pennsylvania, in 1968. Nancy worked as an RN at the local hospital while I worked on my physics MS degree at the local university. The very first charge listed in the ledger was made on 20 September that year and was for a fill-up at an Atlantic gas station. Would you believe $3.00? We bought a brand new car (Chevy Camaro) on 3 October for a grand total of $2,805.90. I noticed that fill-ups were a little more expensive after that purchase. On 14 February 1969, for example, I paid $4.75. We built a little house on Greendale Avenue during the summer of 1969 and moved into it in September.

During those years all of our communication with family, friends, and businesses was via the land line telephone or good old snail mail. Nancy liked to buy commemorative stamps for the snail mail envelopes. In 1970 I started pasting one stamp from each sheet onto the inside cover of my ledger. And yes, even back then we would receive unsolicited return address labels in the mail. I put them in the ledger also.

I don't recall why I stopped using the ledger, but my last entry was for a Sears purchase made on 11 February 1983. We were living here in Huntsville for almost 11 years by that time. The last commemorative stamp was pasted into the book in September 1980.

Many of the stamps are interesting. You can see all 5 pages of stamps by clicking here, but be aware that the file is 47M and will take some time downloading. First of all, first class stamps were 6 cents in 1970. That September 1980 stamp was a mere 15 cents. What are they now? 55 cents?

Above you can see a "Prevent drug abuse" stamp from 1971. A problem then also. We got an Alabama stamp in June 1972 to celebrate the 150th year of our membership in the Union of States. Alabama actually joined the Union in 1819. We got the stamp 3 years late. Not sure whose fault that was. In December of 1974 we have a 10 cent stamp pointing out that "Retarded Children Can Be Helped". I'm pretty sure that's no longer politically correct. In March of 1976 I placed 3 13 cent stamps in the book, each marking the bicentennial of our nation. I chose a stamp from each of the 3 states in which we lived.

I don't know why I stopped pasting stamps into the ledger in 1980. There's still room in the book, and I have a sheet of Elvis stamps and a sheet of 34 cent stamps from each state we've never touched.

Tomorrow is Mothers' Day. I wish all the mothers in our extended family a Happy Mothers' Day and all the happy days afterward.