I am Katrin. When I was a child, all my family lived in
a small house in San Francisco. My family members were
Mama, Papa, my elder brother Nels, my younger sisters
Christine and Dagmar, and I. We were immigrants from
Norway.
I remember that every Saturday night Papa brought
home a little envelope with his pay in it. Mama would sit
down by the kitchen table with a serious look. She was
counting it out. There would be several piles of coins on
10 the table.
"These are the rent," Mama would say, and set aside a
big pile of coins. "For the grocer." She set aside another
pile of coins. "For Katrin's shoes," and Mama counted out
the coins. "I'll need a notebook this week." Nels said, and
5 Mama put aside a ten-cent coin. At last, Papa would ask,
"Is that all?" Mama would nod and say, "That's good. We
don't have to go to the bank to withdraw money."
