Jordan Jarvis
Economics: Yamada
Period 1: Omega
October 1, 2010
A Rose by Another Name
Rosaleen Barber was born May 16th, 1927, and died June 14, 2015. Rosaleen also known as Rosie, she has been my neighbor sense I was 5, the only one that I can remember. Growing up Rosie would have paid .34 cents for a gallon of gas, today she would roughly pay around 2.90 to 3.00 dollars for a gallon of gas. She would have paid for a single candy bar a penny to a nickel, now she might pay 1 to 2 dollars. For a cheeseburger Rosie would have paid around .35 cents, Now days she could pay anywhere from 1 to 5 dollars for a cheese burger. She would have paid around 10 cents for a coke bottle, and now one dollar to a dollar fifty. The most significant changes she has observed in the economy from when she grew up to now have gotten worse.
Rosie grew up in 4 different states, graduating from high school in 1946 in Spokane Washington. There were from 800-1000 students in her graduating class. In 1947 Rosie married her husband Raymond Barber. He also having a name shortened to Ray. Ray served in the navy for four years, serving at the end of World War II. They had 3 kids, and moved from Washington to Oregon in 1953, they lived on a farm and had many animals, also including 7 acres. In 1990 they moved to there home right next doors to ours. They moved because it was time to be in town, closer to doctors, and other important things. In 2007 Ray passed on, and still to this day we referee to our neighbors as Ray and Rosie.
Rosie grew up in a stable environment, there was always food on her table, and clothes on her back. They never went without. She said that when faced with a hardship “You work around them, and pray a lot. Do the best you can”. During the war they were given stamps for food, meat, and gas. She said that “Once you used them all up no gas!” referring to the fact of gas being rationed during the war.
Besides Rosie babysitting, she worked for Consolidated Freightways, and JC Penny’s. She got the jobs by applying where she knew they needed help. When she was speaking with the person hiring for Consolidated Freightways, the man said “We really are looking for people with experience.”, and she said to him “ How can people get experience if no one will hire them.” She was then offered the job and accepted. Later moving on to JC Penny’s. She prepared for these jobs by studying business in high school. She found nothing unrewarding with her jobs, she said “You learn something every time you do something.”
Rosie feels that today’s economy has gotten worse as its advanced. There’s not enough common sense used today. The money that the economy gets for certain things like schools, and public safety could be utilized better by those obtaining the money. There has been a lot of changes from her youth to mine. All electronic devices, and too much to say. Some of these have been good and some haven’t. There is so many things going on today, that people just can’t cope with. She can remember her parents sending her to play at the park across from their house, with her German Shepard cop dog, and everything being okay. They would leave their doors unlocked at night and not have to fear that someone would break in.
The advice that Rosie shared with me was “Hang in there, and learn all you can”. Never stop learning, it will help you in the future. Just about everything in this economy world is such a mess. She said “ The older you get the more frustrating it gets. You have to deal with so many things.” Rosie believes that the most important things for high school students to learn are financial, political aspects, pretty much everything in general she said “It all comes together eventually.”
