Pocket money=Baby Sitting

I reread my blog and thought about how I got money as my parents did not believe in an allowance. My first paying job was baby sitting with the boy across the street in Topeka. He and I got long well as there were not many playmates in our neighborhood. His father used to call him General Nuisance. I even played with him when I was not baby sitting. I think his parents let me because they knew my mother always kept an eye on me so she did on the boy.

I generally used the money to go to the movies although sometimes I used it for candy at the local grocery store, which was only a block away. When I did get old enough to babysit, I was paid thirty five cents unless it went until midnight and then I got fifty cents. Sometimes my sister Helen would take me along and I would play with her charge while she read. I always liked it if they left snacks but they seldom did.

My parents were very careful who I babysat with. If they did not bring me home at the time they said she would come to the house where I was and she was waiting for them. They were very good at being on time as I think they were afraid of my mother. My sisters, Helen and Ethel, babysat also but I do not think my brother did. He was above such menial labor and probably got an allowance. Only rich girls got allowances but boys did.