November 11, 2014 (Tuesday)
When I was a freshman in college, a church 30 miles from Waco called me as “Associate Pastor.” I was 18. No car, so I rode a bus back and forth. The church paid me $25 per month. That does not sound like much, but it was enough to buy 100 grill cheese sandwiches at Baylor Drug on Fifth and Speight in Waco. 
Or I could have bought 100 hamburgers at a fast food place named, “Somewhere.” Do you recall ever saying, “Let’s go somewhere for a hamburger?” So somebody decided to name their place, “Somewhere.” See partially visible sign at top of picture at right. That’s me around 1952, and my room mate, Zeke Alford, from Rockdale, in his car. Good hamburgers. Only a quarter.
Wanda and I decided in 1964 that we could use a second car, which was almost a novel idea in those days. So we bought our friend’s car, a 1949 Ford sedan, for $100. What could you buy for $100 today? It was good enough to drive from Dallas to Rockport when we moved. And plenty good to go just about anywhere we wanted to go. After that, we always had his and her cars, but one of them was never as good as the other. The point is, that old car was cheap. Even in 1964.
The last two years of college saw my friends and me living in an old 3-story house across the street from our classrooms. Rent was only $10 for each of us, and we had our own rooms. That was “dirt cheap,” even for 1952.
Yesterday’s blog was about “free stuff” and today’s blog is about “cheap stuff,” which, if cheap enough, is a deal almost as good as “free stuff.”
The Great Depression ended with World War 2, but the mindset of those days lingered among those of us who lived back then and learned to do without and to look for bargains wherever possible for whatever we bought.
It’s difficult for us old folks to wrap our minds around $50,000 cars and $60,000 per year college expenses. Not to mention homes that were bought for $3500 selling for $200,000.
The wise old owls that inhabit our neighborhood sometimes look as if they want to say something, because their eyes can look right into ours. Maybe they are saying, “Times have changed. Get used to it.”
One thing has always been expensive. It has never been cheap. And that’s Christian Discipleship. Jesus told us that true disciples are to be willing to give their all in His service. Grace is free, but not cheap.
Another expensive item: Freedom. Today is Veteran’s Day, when all those who have served their country are honored in a special way. Many are now disabled as a result of their service. Many of them suffer daily, along with their loved ones. Hundreds of thousands of them have died in defense of freedom. Yes, it is true: Freedom isn’t free. Nor is it cheap.