Baby sitting

I guess people still have people come into their homes and stay with their kids while they go out. When I was growing up my parents did not believe in allowances like some kids got so I earned my money to go to movies babysitting. You got 35 cents for the evening unless they were out until midnight and then you got 50 cents. Sometimes they had a small party before they left and had food. You were allowed to eat the leftovers which was good sometimes and sometimes not. Sometimes they owned a radio and you could listen to that but most people did not have radios. Some kids were fun but some were brats. I sat with a lot of neighborhood children, especially the neighbors across the street. I often was referred and some of those my mother checked out. I had one family that I really enjoyed and that I would have paid them to sit. But later in life I met the wife of the kid I had babysat with and he turned out to be a lousy husband. I liked her so guess she was right. I did not have that much influence on him I like to think. One family had a sense of humor. I was greeted one night with the two-year-old telling me he was a general. I asked what that meant and he said his dad said he was a General Nuisance. If I used my money for the Grand Theater (our first run) it took the whole 35 cents but we also had the Orpheum, the Gem (second run), the Crystal and the Cozy which were 5 cents and we got a local theater at College Hill called the Coed which was cheaper.
Except at Christmas when I wanted to buy gifts it was plenty of money.