MATTRESSES, MATTRESSES, MATTRESSES!

In my last writing I mentioned how the "great depression" affected my brother. Well we all have a few hangovers from those years and seems to never leave us. Today I will tell you a story about our family mattresses.

My mother-in-law decided to get a new mattress, probably due that her back was hurting a tad.
She asked us if we wanted her old mattress (which really was rather new). I told my husband that her mattress was better than the mattress we were sleeping on, so we would replace ours with her cast off.

My youngest daughter had just got her first teaching job and was sharing a rented house with a couple other gals that were teachers, also. We tried to scrounge some beds/furniture together so she could get by until she could afford better. We had given her an old mattress early in the school year. Now we had our mattress (after we got his mom's mattress), and we thought that it was a heap of a lot better than the one we sent down to help her out. We asked her boyfriend (her husband to be) if he minded picking it up and taking it to her when he went down to see her. I think then she tossed out the first mattress.

Eventually she was making more money, and decided to get herself a "Pennsylvania House" bed/new mattress and box springs. She called and asked me, "What do you want me to do with the mattress that I have? I thought awhile, and told her--you know that mattress is better than the mattress that our other daughter and son-in-law was sleeping on. (Our son-in-law was getting his doctorate at the University of Illinois at the time). I asked her if she thought her boyfriend (our future son-in-law) would mind taking it to them. I don't know what happened to our married kids mattress (A cheapo that came with the trailer they were living in) after receiving this one. I imagine it was pitched.

Well, Our daughter's boyfriend probably was getting sick and tired of moving mattresses and decided this had to end. He ended up marrying our daughter! Little did he know, the mattress switching had just BEGUN!!!!!!

They purchased a house and needed furniture/etc to get by with. They had a few extra bedrooms to furnish. Jumers Castle was updating their beds and replacing them for new ones.
They purchased a queen size Beauty Rest & box springs for the GRAND TOTAL of $15. WHAT A DEAL!!! They took it home and used it for a spare bed. They would come to our house and we had two single beds that were upstairs and this was their sleeping arrangements at our house (really great for newly weds!)

A couple years went by and because of their soon growing family, they needed single beds and we could use that queen size bed (for our married children that were visiting). My younger daughter asked if we would switch with her. This seemed like an excellent plan. So, once again, her husband carted the queen size Beauty Rest/springs over to our house and they took the twin beds back for their girls.

A few years ago, our granddaughter (their daughter) was needing furniture/beds and (you guessed it) mattress to furnish her apartment. She had just gotten a teaching job and couldn't afford to buy new stuff immediately. Our daughter asked if we had any beds/mattresses that we weren't using anymore. I told my husband I thought it was high time we got a NEW mattress to replace that Beauty Rest & springs. So the Beauty Rest went about 300 miles to its new home. The story doesn't end yet. She moved back and this year is living with her parents and teaching close by. We have all her belongings in our basement for storage. Why pay storage when we have a room to store it all in for free. We together figured out that that we got our moneys worth out of the $15 Beauty Rest mattress and box spring. So this went in the dump beside the condo that she purchased. I bet someone saw it there and retrieved it and is enjoying a good nights rest still on that bed. (This is the saga of the traveling mattresses).

Oh by the way, our grandson and wife needed a mattress and box springs for their guest bedroom. Of course, you know they would first see if grandma had one to spare. Yes we just happen to have an extra set. So the saga of the mattresses continues on!!!!

Wisdom for the day--Never live beyond your means, God wants us to be prudent, and you will have enough money for necessities. I guess you can take the girl out of the depression but some of that lifestyle still remains!