ADVICE FOR CONGRESS - CALL MY MOM

Our economy is hurting so we are going to borrow almost a trillion dollars to “stimulate” it. I suppose that might make sense on a macroeconomic level, but it flies in the face of two economic principles my parents taught me: don’t spend money if you don’t have it, and don’t buy something if you don’t need it.
Congress could learn from the example of our family freezer. In 1964 I was 14, my 2 brothers were 12 and 4 and my sister was 9. My parents had planned a six week vacation (my father was a high school history teacher) for us to drive from Burbank, California across the country to see the New York World’s Fair. But my mom also wanted to buy a freezer so Dad told her that if she could spend less than what they had budgeted for the vacation, she could use the savings to buy a freezer.
To save money on lodging we stayed as much as possible with friends and family. When necessary, we rented a room at Motel 6. In those days the “6” was in the name because rooms were $6 per night. The “6” also signified how many people we put in a room. Unfortunately the “6” did not stand for how many of us slept in a bed. Since there were only two double beds my youngest brother always slept on the floor and the other three kids rotated sleeping on the floor with him.
Mom saved money on food by fixing us cold cereal in the morning and making us sandwiches for lunch. Occasionally Mom and Dad would splurge by eating out for breakfast. The kids still ate cold cereal in the car but Dad bought us donuts on those days to make us feel special too.
It was a great trip and we stayed under budget so Mom bought a freezer for $100. They still had it in 1974 and in 1984 and in 1994 and in 2004. Mom didn’t replace it because it still worked - except that the interior light no longer came on when you opened the door. That freezer lasted longer than most marriages, but it had two significant problems. First, it had to be defrosted, which was an all day chore. I remember some months when the freezer had more frost than food in it. And even worse, it used a lot of electricity.
You may have heard of CERN, an international physics laboratory in Sweden. It contains an enormously powerful particle accelerator capable of smashing subatomic particles together, reproducing the energies that existed a fraction of a second after the big bang. The experiment was scheduled for last Fall but was postponed for undisclosed reasons. Well , I can now tell you the real reason was Mom’s freezer. It was so inefficient that there was a huge electromagnetic field above my parent’s house. Scientists were afraid that the particles colliding would create a black hole above the freezer that might swallow up their house and the entire city of San Clemente.
Last Christmas, Mom bought herself a new freezer after 44 years. She only started thinking about it because the power company offered her a $35 rebate if she would buy a more energy efficient model. She had decided against buying a new one (“The old one still works!” she said) until Dad pointed out that $35 was enough to buy them each six meals at Taco Bell. Keeping a freezer that long is very unusual in our culture of instant gratification and “I want it all and I want it right now.”
If your kids are complaining about having to wait until their birthdays to get a new cell phone, or if you are considering borrowing money on your 5th credit card, I suggest you visit my mom to gain a little perspective. She will be excited to show you her new freezer that she waited 44 years to buy. And if you are really nice, she will show you how the light comes on when you open the door.

David LeSueur lives in Littleton with his wife Mary. He can’t think of anything he has owned for 44 years.

We received our first Christmas card of the season on December 3. It was from Robert and Barbara Elton of Colorado Springs. The handwritten address on the outside of the envelope said "The LeSueur's."

Like most Christmas cards we receive, there was a form Christmas letter inside describing what the family members were all doing and included a fuzzy photo so you could kind of see what everyone looked like now.

It is easy to make fun of these Christmas letters, but I like them. Done correctly, they give me an idea of what my friends are doing, without requiring them to send fifty or more handwritten letters that say essentially the same thing. A good Christmas letter is brief and informative, describing the activities and accomplishments of the family members without bragging.

We learned that Barbara keeps busy volunteering at Church, Robert was contemplating retirement and their son Nathan just moved to Fort Collins. The actual card had a handwritten note on it saying "Let's get together this year. We come to Denver fairly often." The personal note let me know that even though the Christmas letter was impersonal, they were thinking of me. Everything about the Christmas card and letter was perfect. There was only one problem.

We have no idea who Robert and Barbara Elton of Colorado Springs are.

They have sent us a card 3 years in a row now. We thought we must know them because they spelled our name right and had our address. It's not like our last name is Smith or Johnson or something. We tried to think of all of the people we had met in the prior year who might be sending us a card. Did they sell us something during the year? Were their children friends with our children? We looked at the family photo and no one looked familiar. How did they get our name and address? Do they know another LeSueur family and picked the wrong address out of the phone book?

It's too bad I don't know them because I wanted to compliment them on their Christmas card. Letter-writing is a lost art and we should encourage people who are good at it. I understand why no one writes letters anymore. Talking on the phone is easier and more rewarding. You get immediate answers to your questions. People do write e-mails, but most e-mails are just shorthand versions of conversations. Real letters require us to think about what we are saying and how we say it.

When I left home to go to college 40 years ago, phone calls were a luxury. My parents called me once a week every Sunday evening when I was away. My dad was worried about the cost, so as soon as there was a break in the conversation that lasted more than three seconds, he would say, "Well, it was nice talking to you." I learned to talk fast to make the phone call last longer.

In college I loved checking the mail. During the week, my mother wrote me a letter which would arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. My dad always gave me a subscription to The Sporting News for Christmas and it came on Fridays.

My wife keeps in touch with a high school group through a "round robin letter" which has been going for 30 years. About once a year we receive an envelope with a letter from each of the people in the group. We remove the letter we wrote last time and replace it with a new one. Then we send the packet of letters to the next person on the list and wait for a year to receive the package again. It is a throwback to an earlier time.

So I want to encourage the Eltons from Colorado Springs. I am afraid to call them because either they will be embarrassed for sending a Christmas card to total strangers, or we will be embarrassed because we actually do know them. I guess I will send them a Christmas card so they don't take us off their list.

David LeSueur lives in Littleton, 50 miles north of the Eltons.