Eighty Eight Cents

I had gone to Stinson's at El Paso, Texas to await the arrival of their first baby. When we  went to the store, Clara saw some scatter rugs on special for 88 cents and asked Verl if she might buy one to go in front of her kitchen sink. I said, "Clara let me make you one," I had been to "Unice's a few months previously and had made her one--she had had so many worn out clothes with her large family. So I bought a rug hook, and when we got home I told her to get out her worn out clothes and I would start the rug. Neither of us had thought that they had not been married long enough for anything to wear out yet.
Soon she called from the bed-room--"Verl may I have this old red shirt of yours for mother to use in a rug, it is about to wear out."

Verl looked up from his paper and said, "No, I want to wear it some more."

A few moments then, "Verl, how about this blue one, it is nearly worn out, there is a hole
in the elbow."

The answer was "No, I want to wear it some more." II "How about these sox, they are nearly to get holes in the heels?"--Same answer.

Then she thought how funny it really was. "But Verl, it will only take a hall dozen $2.98 shirts and six or eight 49 cent pairs of sox to make the rug, but remember we are saving 88 cents!" We had a terrible time finding enough things to make that rug, but     with much work and fun it was done.

I think Verl will always remind me of that 88 cent rug. One day I came home and found attached to a small rug I had started [a tag saying] 88 cents, and I knew who had been there.