Chapter 9

Dad walked in on Joan and I sitting in the living room laughing.

“Well, what’s this then?” Dad asked.

“I fed her, so she adopted me, just like a cat,” I explained with a smile.

“Meow,” Aunt Joan said, bringing us to giggles again.

“I think Sam might find his calling as a chef. I know he loves his fancy new electronics, but wow, can he cook!” Aunt Joan exclaimed.

“Hey, I can be both into electronics, and a foodie, and still have a perfectly respectable career doing something else,” I said, defending myself.

“They do say that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life,” she riposted.

“That’s great you two, so really, what have you been doing?”

“After we got the appliances installed, I made her lunch, and then she helped me get the bathroom painted.”

“That’s great! That means just the ceilings are left. I bet the two of us can get those knocked out by the end of the week,” Dad said.

“Pete, the boy has been working his tail off for almost a month now. Did you have plans for something else tonight?”

“That’s right. I have it under good authority that costco.com does not have clothing suitable for a sixteen year old, about to start a new school.”

“Come on Dad. I’ve checked the local Instagram accounts, the kids wouldn’t be wearing anything different than I would.”

“It may be the same kind of clothes, but labels do count. Kirkland Signature is not the brand you want for high school jeans, polos, and t-shirts,” Aunt Joan countered.

Seeing that there was no getting out of it, I capitulated, teen style, “Fine.”

“Great, I call shotgun!” Joan responded.

“I’ll need 10 to shower,” Dad countered.

“Ok, but I still get shotgun.”

In the end it wasn’t that bad. I knew what I wanted, and Joan found it, only in brands and stores that the rest of the school would find upwardly mobile, and socially acceptable. It helped that I had saved pictures from several local Instagram users, so I didn’t need to know what to call it, just point and say, I like that.

She was surprised at the request for a new pair of hiking boots, but loved my general ensemble idea of multiple solid colored long and short sleeve button down one pocket collared shirts in a variety of colors to go with multiple pairs of jeans in a variety of shades of blue, black, and grey.

The shirts were a nice thick cloth, but still didn’t shout formal wear. I selected a dozen different solid colored t-shirts to wear underneath to provide a contrasting splash of color at the neckline. She even found a new belt for me, if I decided to wear the button up shirts tucked in. It was a nice quality leather, and double sided, so it could be worn as black or brown. I wanted a consistent style, with a variation that required no thinking.

We finished finally with a couple new jackets. A nice leather bomber jacket, and what I thought of as a ski jacket. Aunt Joan promised I’d be glad for both before next summer. Then she remembered I needed school colors for PE wear. Five pairs of Crimson Tiger gym shorts and t-shirts later, and I was ready for the school year.

That’s when Dad provided the list of school supplies I needed for my classes. I could have gotten everything cheaper on Amazon, but they were having fun, so I got what I needed, without grumbling. I did make sure that we used the card that funneled the cash back to my Amazon account.

“Thanks, this was more fun than I expected, and probably really useful,” I told them during dinner at the local Chinese restaurant.

“I’m sorry I’ve been working so much. I know I told you that I would take all the overtime they offered, but I seriously didn’t expect as much as I’ve been putting in. It’s the economy right now, everybody is desperate for workers,” Dad said.

“It’s the demographics of the country, with baby boomer retirements accelerating, and the number of industries, service jobs, and population growth. I know the President is taking credit for unemployment going down and wages going up, but unemployment would be dropping no matter who was in charge, and a small worker pool makes wages go up,” Aunt Joan explained.

“I remember people making jokes about guys with PhDs working at Starbucks when I was little,” I told them.

“Those days are long gone. That was just the last little bubble of baby boomer conceit. People of my generation got the short end of the stick. They blame the GenX’ers as the do nothing generation, when they were simply the beginning of the demographic return to normal,” Aunt Joan responded.

“When did you learn all this?” Dad asked her.

“Oh, I went back to college a few years ago, got my masters in sociology. Summerville has a pretty good community college, and there’s a small State annex for distance learning,” she said to our surprise.

“Is that why the newest billionaires are all under 50?” I asked.

“No, it’s because if you haven’t hit the billion dollar mark by the time you are 40, you probably won’t get there. The mark used to be millionaire, but inflation has pushed that to billionaire now. J Paul Getty was an oil millionaire at age 23, in 1915. New wealth has generally been the province of the young, who could see and embrace new opportunities.”

“So if I want to be a billionaire, I’ll have to do it young,” I said.

“Or inherit it,” Aunt Joan agreed.

“Don’t look at me, I’m only 38, but it’s not happening in the next two years,” Dad replied to our looks.