My dad always looked for away to save a dollar. He bargain hunted and went to auctions and brought home broken tools that he mended with screws and wire. A door in the farmhouse I grew up in had advertising written on it for a loan and insurance company. My dad got that door free.

He was a cheapskate, my mother said.

He wore secondhand clothes and shoes after he retired from his job as maintenance foreman for the Freeborn County Highway Department. His clothes were usually mismatched plaids and patched jackets. He liked dressing like someone down and out and the louder the plaid pants,the better. He did most of the grocery shopping for the household and would buy canned goods by the crate when they were five cents a can. I always wondered if he was preparing for war with all the canned goods in the cupboards and basement shelves

Besides being a bargain shopper, my dad liked to barter. He bartered haircuts, that he get a cut for a six pack of beer, traded gravel from our gravel pit for getting our drive way plowed, and traded eggs for school books. I have bartered too. We have traded hay on shares with other farmers for baling. I have traded my cooking for manual labor, a calf for pasture rent from a neighbor, wood for someone helping us saw it up, vegetables for babysitting and believe it or not, I got a piano for two truck loads of sheep manure.

Bartering is a very old concept and one that has been around since time began. While it is not recorded, the first caveman may have traded a bone tool for food. I like the concept of bartering, as it is creative and hopefully both parties feel the trade was fair. One trade my husband did that I was not happy with was trading a large white rabbit for a Rhode Island Red rooster. He wanted the red rooster, as our hens were the same breed. The rooster was ancient and never had the urge to copulate with the hens, so it became a stringy stew. An old rooster for a young rabbit was not a good trade.

My brothers, John and Steve were approached with a bartering proposition when they lived in New Mexico back in the late 70's. They lived with my sister, Kate.

Kate was 5 feet 11 inches, had long auburn hair and long beautiful legs. She was 23 years old at that time. Being a young, single woman, she was noticed by all the other single men in the small town they lived in. The three of them shared an old Pontiac car that constantly needed work on and my brothers found out that Kate could get repair work done for free at the local mechanic shop run by two single men, Del and Irwin. These two lived out in the sand dunes and they raised mules. They weren't the smartest guys in the world, but they were kind and pretty good mechanics.

One day at the local caf, John and Steve stopped to have a bite to eat and Del and Irwin were there too. They sat down beside them and after a while Irwin mentioned to John and Steve that they sure had a nice sister.

Steve said, "She's alright."

"No," said Irwin, "She's really nice."

"Yes," said Del, "really, really nice."

John and Steve nodded their heads, shrugged their shoulders and kept on eating.

"We were wondering if you would like to do a trade with us for your sister," said Del.

John stopped eating and asked, "What kind of trade did you have in mind?"

"Well, you know we raise mules. We were wondering if we could trade two mules for your sister, Kate?" said Del.

"Mmm," said John slowly and looking Del right in the eye, "I can't really answer for my sister, Kate, and you really should be asking my father; but he is a cattle man and not partial to mules."

Del and Irwin nodded, understanding that a cattleman would not want mules.

That night, John and Steve told Kate that they almost traded her for two mules. Kate was so angry with them and insulted that they even talked about her that way. Besides, she was worth a lot more than two mules.