Suzanne Graham

The next time I hear about the conflict between Wall Street and Main Street, I may throw a shoe at the TV or the computer monitor. Surely all of you are too intelligent to fall for that kind of class warfare! When banks start failing, everyone is going to be hurt, whatever street we’re on.

I grew up hearing stories of the Great Depression from my parents who vividly remembered it. (They were born in 1917 and 1918) A local bank held the mortgage on my grandparents’ ranch. For years the family struggled just to pay the interest on that mortgage so they would not lose their means of livelihood. My other grandfather was an officer in the bank in a small farm community. The officers didn’t get their money out until everyone else had been paid. Both families kept food on the table with backyard gardens. Ironically my mother learned to love cooked greens, and my father learned to hate them.

I hope that enough of our representatives in Washington will have enough backbone to put election year pontificating aside and do the right thing to stabilize the financial markets, but I’m not counting on them.

I have begun to think about what I need to do to keep healthy food on the table. I am seriously considering a garden on the back of our property. I have a lot to learn if I’m going to break ground for a spring garden. Even without a garden, increasing vegetable servings and portions is one way to make our food dollars go farther. That would be beneficial for both the Type Os and Type As in the family.

I fear that most Americans will increase their wheat and potato portions. That will fill them up, but will cause health problems, especially for Type Os.

I don’t know how long I will buy spelt bread at $4.50 a loaf. HH likes it much better than the less expensive Ezekiel Bread. I can dig the bread machine out of the closet, but I wish I hadn’t sold my bread slicer before we moved. Organic will be out of the question, and when I finished the leftover salmon for lunch today, I may have been eating my last wild caught fish – unless I’m fortunate enough to find a sale.

I have already started ordering supplements on the Internet. I really want to support my local health food stores. But their supplement prices are twice as high as the same products on line.

Perhaps you think I’m over reacting. Here are a few facts. Most employers no longer provide pensions; they provide 401K plans. Unless you plan to die young, you have to generate enough income from your 401K so that you don’t spend your principle. Falling stock markets, falling interest rates, and inflation (all of which increased at the speed of light this week) decrease your 401K income. Social Security expenditures will exceed income in 2017, with bankruptcy following unless benefits are cut. Medicare expenditures began exceeding income last year. The program will be bankrupt by 2020. Those “facts” are suddenly very personal when HH hoped to retire this year and we have two children in college.

It will help if I can find a good job quickly. I’m working at that every day. It will also help if I get away from the computer and pound out some of this stress in intense physical exercise.