Carline Wilson Story

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

"The greatest wealth is to live content with little"                                                                         ---Plato

According to dictionary.com, the definition of frugal is as follows: economical in use, or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful. For some, the word frugal may convey negative connotations but there are certainly words such as stingy that carry with them a much harsher punch. What constitutes being frugal to one person may seem over the top to some while lavish to others.  It all depends on your experiences in life. I do think that as a society we are less frugal today than we were a generation ago. As a forty-seven-year-old, I can remember not having nearly as much as a child as my children have now. Of course, we didn't have all the gadgets then that we do now but luxuries such as eating out and always having pop in the refrigerator are much more common in my life now than they were when I was a child. Perhaps this was a function of the generation that I grew up in but it also may have been due to the amount of money we had as a family and the values of my mom and dad. Sure, there were times when I envied my friends for material possessions that they had but I never felt like I lacked anything that I needed. Although the notion of spending it while you have it and being happy is sound advice there are times when I feel very strongly that too much value is placed on spending money on something based more on wanting it than needing it. This month's featured senior, Carline Wilson, provides us an example of what willpower in terms of saving money can do for one's future financial stability.

Carline was born in 1932 in Russellville, Kentucky, into what many would classify as financial poverty at that time in history. She was the youngest of four siblings although two of them died during childbirth.  Her older sister of four years, Polly was born in 1928. Polly and Carline were taught at an early age the value of hard work and wise spending. Carline spoke of conditions in the house she grew up in as being simple without any modern-day luxuries of the 1930s.  "We lived out in the country as children in a one-bedroom house with no power or running water. We slept on straw mattresses and every year we would replace the straw. We had bed bugs and would periodically take the bed spring out, stuff the springs with rags soaked in kerosene, otherwise known as coal oil, and burn them to get rid of the bed bugs."

Running water, electrical power and box spring mattresses were not the only luxuries Carline was missing out on as a young child. Enjoying the pleasure of eating white bread was like toasting with a glass of champagne on New Year's Eve."On rare occasions, we would have white bread. It was like getting a piece of candy."

Although they had no indoor plumbing they did not have to walk far for the precious life source of water. "We had a ground-fed spring near the house that provided water. It was cold. We put gallon buckets of milk in the spring. We would tie them to something on land to keep them from floating downstream. The milk was ice cold."

The spring provided more than just fresh drinking water and a source to keep their milk ice cold. "We would wash clothes down by the spring. Polly and I would make a fire by the spring and heat the water in a black pot. We made lye soap with lye and grease and used this for washing clothes and dishes."

Carline and Polly's mom raised chickens which helped to supplement the family's income, but resources from the land also provided money. "We raised chickens, butchered them, and took them to town to sell. Mom also sold eggs. Mom would pick wild blackberries and walnuts to bring to town to sell. Polly and I would help pick the berries and nuts."

The land that they lived on also provided a source of medication.  "Mom would also pick May apple root, dry it, and sell it in town as medicine."

While Mom was busy raising, collecting, and selling goods in town, Carline's dad made a living farming the fields owned by his parents.  Carline spoke of working in the fields as a young girl. "Dad worked in the cornfields, tobacco fields, wheat fields, and hay fields depending on the season. My grandpa had a big farm. Polly and I would help in the tobacco fields by picking worms from the tobacco. I would pick the worms and put them in a can for Dad to kill because I didn't have the heart to kill them."

Carline would be thrust into the world of being a responsible adult as a teenager with the passing of her mom and dad two years apart. "Dad passed away from tuberculosis when I was 10 years old. Mom died when I was twelve from the same thing. Polly was 16 when mom died. She married shortly after that. I quit school in the ninth grade and I began working when I was 13, in a restaurant and then a beauty shop. I spent time being shipped off from one household to another, staying with Polly and her husband, my grandparents, and an aunt until I was 15."

Carline followed the path of matrimony a few years after her mom passed away. "I married when I was 15.  My husband, Charles, and I lived on his parents’ farm and both of us helped farm."   Charles and Carline waited three years to have children.  "Charles and I had our first child when I was 19, in 1949 Charles Jr.  Dallas, our second boy was born in 1950. Linda our next was born in 1951. Joyce was born in 1953."

Carline would be faced with a major roadblock in her relationship with her children four years after her youngest, Joyce, was born. "Charles and I divorced and he took the kids and left me in 1957. I had no contact with the kids from that point until they were adults." 

Not having any communication with her children must have been a tough blow, but Carline had no choice but to move on with her life. "I went to live with my grandmother and worked in Russellville and Bowling Green. Later I traveled the country with a guy that I had met and then came back to Kentucky. I moved to Flint in 1960 and got a job waitressing at a bar and then ended up managing another bar."  With her good looks and charm, Carline always found it easy to get a job waitressing. She started saving money she made from tips which would pay off for her when she retired. 

Carline would not stay in Flint for long, however. "I met a pool player, Tom, at the bar I managed in 1960. Tom worked in Flint for AC Sparkplugs.  Tom got tired of working at the spark plug plant so he quit. Tom and I went to Chicago for a while in a new Volkswagon that I had bought. From there we went to Florida where I worked at a restaurant." 

Tom could not find work in Florida and both of them longed to return to Chicago.  Carline's savings had been eaten up with the purchase of the VW and the move to Florida so moving back to Chicago was a challenge financially. "We wanted to go back to Chicago but didn't have money. Tom contacted a friend in Chicago who sent him $50.  We went to Chicago on $50 and a jar of pennies." 

Once back in Chicago Carline easily found a job but Tom couldn't find work. "I found a job at a restaurant. Tom couldn't find a job for seven years but made some money playing pool and playing the horses. Eventually, Tom and I found a job working as managers for an apartment complex we lived in. We did maintenance and cleaning. All this time I was saving money." 

The job as apartment manager was a great opportunity for both Tom and Carline. "Eventually the owner of the building, Mr. Weis, offered us a partnership in the building in the 1970s. I had saved enough to buy in as a partial partner. We continued to manage the building. We had no rent to pay and I kept saving money. A few years later Mr. Weiss talked us into buying bearer bonds. I had a lot of money invested in these. Over the years I made a large sum of money on these bonds. I eventually turned them all in and got a good sum of money off of this. After Mr. Weiss died his daughter sold the building and we got money from this. Much of the money I saved over the years I hid in a wall, not in a bank. Tom spent his money away but I saved mine."

Issues with Tom's health made them realize it was time to retire.  "In 1999 Tom had a heart attack so we retired and moved to Battle Creek."  Carline's ability to save money over the years would pay dividends. "I had enough money to buy our house with no loans.  Tom had a stroke, open heart surgery, and bypass surgery after retirement.  He began suffering from dementia after his stroke."

Carline took care of Tom with his health issues but it was not easy. "Tom and I had agreed years ago that we would never put the other in a nursing home. I began to suffer from COPD. Although it was difficult, Tom remained at home and I took care of him. I also suffered from a bad hip but surgery was and still is not an option because of the COPD. Tom fell in 2011 and broke his hip. With all my medical problems I could not take care of him and finally had to send him to a nursing home where he died in December 2013."

Carline still deals with her COPD and her painful hip issues. She was diagnosed with cancer after Tom passed but was treated for it and is now a cancer survivor.

At the age of 85 Carlin still manages at home with her sixteen-year-old dog Jackie.  She has plenty of help from her niece Laurie who checks on her daily, her nephew Fritz who lives in Florida and comes to spend time with her three times a year for two weeks at a time, Tom's son Mark who drives from Flint every other weekend to make sure her house is cleaned as well as friends and neighbors. Carline has not had an easy life but her willpower and wisdom in saving money has turned her from rags to riches.  Some might call her frugal but I would call her wise.