May 4, 1959 - Saskatoon

No Strings Attached

The students wanted to give us the money outright but I said that was out of the question. We offered them free room and board in return. We have room for three boarders, and pay back the other three a little bit every month. The boarders and Ernie all have their own rooms, and Wayne and the kids and I all sleep in the master bedroom. Wayne earns $180 a month and $100 of that goes towards paying off the remainder of the $7,200, so we are all living on just $80 a month. Bing often has to give him advances to pull us through the month. The boarders love staying here because I make them good Chinese food and do their laundry. They get first crack at dinner, then the kids, and I eat whatever’s left. When there’s nothing left I’ll just eat some bean curd, though lately I’ve been getting sick of it. The kids have to help me clean the house because I’ve started working the dayshift at the Golden Dragon too.
Shockingly, Wayne’s father has taken a second wife. His daughter introduced them, and he married her and paid for her passage here without even seeing her first. At 31 she is two years my junior, but she bosses me around like she’s my mother. He is 81 now and nobody knows why he wants to re-marry, but no one, not even his twin brother, dares to ask him, because he is too powerful.