We both had been living at home and came to the marriage with practically just the clothes on our backs. We needed lots of essentials to get us started. Money was flying out the window - bedroom furniture, living room furniture, rugs, drapes, radio, TV and on and on!
The house had a high foundation which I was anxious to cover with some tall shrubs but my practical husband had different ideas. He discovered a mail order company that would deliver garden products of various sizes and if not completely satified refund your money or send replacements to your door.
Ok, that sounded good, my husband ordered some shrubs and a twin birch. When the package arrived I couldn't believe my eyes- it contained what looked like STICKS to me. They sent us what we had ordered!!
They were VERY small shrubs and a tiny tree. It took a few years before the shrubs covered the foundation.
In the meantime my husband's interest in gardening increased and he started to plant vegetables. Some of his endeavors paid off and some just never made it to our table.
The most successful crop he had was tomatoes. No matter what kind he grew we always had a successful crop, we couldn't give them away fast enough!
I cooked sauces, soups, put them in salads and gave them to our friends but they still kept coming.
Steve recognized the problem. He had a great idea - he would set up a stand and sell the tomatoes in front of our house! We lived near a bus stop so when the people got off the bus and saw this cute kid selling fresh garden tomatoes, they went like hot cakes.
There came a time when he ran out of tomatoes and had none to sell, well, leave it to Steve, he went into the house and took some out of the refrigerator, that we had purchased at the supermarket!!
"You must satisfy your customer at all costs!!"