There are some new guests who have left notes on the Guest Book. I would be happy to see more..

    Three of my "kids" have March birthdays; Nancy Lee (Putnam) Nordstrand (John's wife); our daughter, Hildy Jean (Nordstrand) Lightfoot; and her husband, Daniel John Lightfoot. Also, and not least, Suzie's daughter, Kirby Lindsay celebrates her "day" in March.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO NAN, HILDY, DAN AND KIRBY

    Vern and I took Nan and John to Little Coney at Golden Gardens for hamburgers for her birthday. Honestly, that's what she asked for.

    Kirby and her Mom sent me a postcard from Monterey, CA, and it sounded like they had a full day planned for Kirby's birthday.. including several special treats including a visit to Cannery Row and the John Steinbeck Museum, Mexican food, a chocolate museum, some pastries, and (this sounds like a good idea), a gym.

    March 16, 2006
    Today's mail brought a note from Bill Vivatson, an old friend who now lives in Yakima. He sent an old, aluminum Washington State Sales Tax token, asking if we happened to know what it is. Someone had found it with a metal detector and sent it to him from North Dakota because it said "Washington State" on it.
     I found information on Google, where there are something like 1,200 or more pages of information about Washington State Sales Tax tokens.
     I also checked EBay and found there is a market for these. Many collectors. I found offers to buy and offers to sell, ranging from $0.99 to $5 - 6.
     I vaguely remember these (and I do mean vaguely). I was in my late teens and Mom did most of the buying in our family.
     I remember better the colored tokens, the red and blue ration points that went with the ration books we were issued by the Federal government during WWII. Vern and I were married in May of 1944 and we couldn't buy certain items without the stamps in the books. Both my Mom and Vern's Mom had used some of the May stamps, so I couldn't buy coffee (Vern's Mom) or sugar (mine) until the new stamps became valid in June. Fortunately, our wedding present from my folks was a carton of groceries (including a small bag of sugar).

    The "token" reminded me of this last bit of information, which I hadn't thought of for many years. It will give me another story for my family story book. Those were memorable, sometimes difficult times.

    This is what I found on "Google" about the tokens:

    "Sales tax tokens were made in great quantities starting in 1935 in order to give change for sales taxes. Sales tax resulted in the final price of items having fractions of a cent. For example, purchase of a $1.25 item, taxed at 3%, would cost $1.2875, or $1.28 and 3/4c. What to do? Rounding up to $1.29 would result in a "unfair" profit to the seller of 1/4c, but rounding down would be unfair to the seller by reducing the profit by 3/4c. The solution was to provide tokens denominated in fractions of a cent, or "mills" (1 mill = 1/1000 of a dollar, or 1/10 of a cent). So in the above example, the customer would pay $1.29 and receive 2.5 mills in tax tokens as change. If the next purchase came to $3.4325, the customer could pay $3.43 plus the 2.5 mills in tax tokens. As you can imagine, people did not like having to carry a second set of coins, and to further complicate matters, different states issued different tax tokens. The use of tax tokens declined and was finally discontinued in 1961, and people basically decided not to worry about fractions of a cent.
    "Coinlike" tax tokens were issued by twelve different states (Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington state). Tokens were made of aluminum, copper, zinc, brass, plastic (in several colors), fiber, cardboard, and paper. 1 and 5 mills are the most common denominations, but other denominations include: 1/5 cent, 1 1/2 mills, and "Tax on 10c or less."
    A related issue are the small vulcanized fiber "red point" and "blue point" tokens, issued by the USA during WW II to make change for ration coupons."

    Now, I'll bet that was more than you even cared to hear about, but it sure brought back some memories for me. What I remember most about the red and blue tokens was that they were a darned nuisance. If you didn't have the exact amount due in coupons and tokens, you ended up with handfuls of tokens of little value to try to dispose of with your next purchase before they got completely out of hand!

    On St. Patrick's Day, I had lunch with Naomi Murphy and Mildred Hunter, two ladies I met at one of the "writing groups" I enjoyed for several years. We had a great visit. Both ladies were "wearing of the green". Naomi was sporting a lovely scarf printed with big, green shamrocks. Mildred's jacket was Kelly green. I lucked out by wearing a green shirt, although I had completely overlooked the reason for doing so.

    I had a corned beef and cabbage dinner cooking in my crockpot for most of the day while I was gone. We love corned beef, but I seldom fix it these days because it is so salty. Sure tastes good, though. There is enough left for another meal and some sandwiches. with horseradish..

    The sorting and downsizing goes on. Hildy and Dan took six or seven cartons of stuff with them when they left here last Sunday to donate to a charity they like. Just a small dent in the maze of stuff we have collected over the years. What surprises me is how much I have kept and now can't remember why.

    Hildy and John pruned the jasmine vine that was threatening to swallow our house. As usual, I agonized as every piece came down, and hate the "new" look, even though I know it will grow back and look much better than ever in a few weeks. Meantime, I try to ignore it. It's much easier to look down and enjoy the primroses and daffodils that are in profuse bloom.

    The first day of Spring has come and gone and the March weather continues to be changeable. It is good to know true Spring weather will soon be here, when we can go outside without being bundled up. It can't come too soon for me.

    One of the orchids Dave brought me several years ago is in bloom. It blooms only once a year, but the flowering branch stays gorgeous for over a month as each blossom opens. the first one continuing to be beautiful long after the final one (there are nine this year) comes out.

Thought for the day: "Some folks never exaggerate--they just think big." -Audrey Snead

Dixie/Dorothea, Senior Editor

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