quiltersmuse.com Blog

When I was sixteen, my father set up an account for me in the Credit Union that he founded. Handing me a passbook, he told me to save my babysitting money and any other money gifts. I did not receive many of the latter, but I did have a doting aunt who faithfully sent one dollar in a birthday card to every niece and nephew she had, yearly, without fail.

Well, I found that I did not make much babysitting money because I lived in a small, farming community where folks usually retired with the chickens. Some of the city slickers who decided to move to our quiet town presented the possibility of watching their unruly offspring. In one instance, I had the opportunity to babysit two demons. Between the menacing Siamese cat making threatening noises, from any point she could reach that was higher than my head, (mainly, the stairwell), and the boys “finding” a (fake) snake in their bed, the event was topped only by a drunken father who insisted on driving me home. In fact, I believe that is the last time I ever agreed to babysit. Yet, I digress.

I am most thankful to my father for the financial lessons he taught me. The first lesson is to not abuse credit. Never spend more than you can pay back in a month. Of course, the credit card companies frown on that practice. The game is to entrap people into spending more and more, to the point that consumers may never be able to pay off the debt.

With hard work and frugality and yes, self-denial, when it came to expensive vacations, we are ok. Self-sufficient talents assist the cause of financial independence. The government is not doing so well. One would think that Americans would never forget the lessons of the Great Depression – “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,” being one of them. I remember meeting a woman who would take the collars off of her husband’s shirts so that she could sew them on the other way to give the shirt longer life.
I have thought about the ramifications of the current, national, fiscal crisis. I suspect that the enormity of the problem is actually being minimized. I do not own any investments. My father tried the stock market once and lost  money. He said, “Never again.” The rule of thumb is never to invest more than you can afford to lose. I’ve always had my eye on the bottom line, and have never had any discretionary income that I would be happy losing.

“Save for a rainy day,” was a Credit Union/Cuna Mutual Insurance Co. logo that involved the depiction of a little man with an umbrella stamped on various pieces of ephemera. I took the image seriously.

I am sure I don’t understand “big business” and I am equally sure that I don’t care to try. I don’t know if it is just a matter of convenience to blame the current situation on “Republican” greed, cronyism, and corruption.

I just have one question, why hasn’t anyone been “watching the store?” I mean, this didn’t happen overnight, so where has the oversight been up to the present? We have a fine way of getting ourselves in a pickle. I’d rather eat a pickle, a homemade one, if you please, a little tart and a little salty. As for the rest of this “mess,” I simply don’t get it. That said, I’m off to tend to my own knittin’ in hopes that those who know more about financial matters will get this straightened out. So, “Amen & Amen!”

Patricia Cummings

Although the words “shop” and “save” were not strung together, in my father’s day, I know he would get a kick out of the concept. In my mind, I can picture him shaking his head and chuckling, and saying, “How can one spend money and save it at the same time?” Yet, today, the words are a great marketing gimic.

The gist of the concept is to spend now because a store’s prices are the lowest they ever will be, or they definitely are lower than Competitor X. In fact, some stores resort to price matching, or they say that they will not be undercut in their price, also a good strategy.

My father lived at a simpler time, a time when there was food rationing during the war, a time when his mother darned his socks rather than throw out two socks if one got a hole in it, a time when having enough money to put gas in Mother’s car to go on a “date” in the Model A, was a big deal. Of course, there were always built-in chaperones along, namely, my mother’s younger siblings.

Saving money, in his day, was a really important thing to do. After the stock market crash of 1929, he never quite trusted stock investments. However, his brother-in-law talked him into buying stock, just once, and he “lost his shirt,” so to speak. Forevermore, he swore off on repeating that mistake.

No, Dad had a different sort of vision about money management. He had studied this subject. His ancestry was Irish. Need I say more? The Irish have always struggled financially, been subjugated to foreign rule, been involved in religious disputes, and also, God love them, have always eaten a lot of potatoes (out of necessity.) With the potato famine, many Irishmen came to America, only to be met with signs that said, “Irish Need Not Apply.”

Dad began looking into the idea of credit unions, and during his lifetime, founded seventeen of them throughout the state of New Hampshire. The most successful one is the one that he personally managed and where he was treasurer for close to thirty years. That organization is now called Granite State Credit Union, an ever expanding operation, with branch offices all over the state.

The idea between Credit Unions is to share the use of money. The Credit Union itself is not intended to be profit-making. Rather, the entire entity is owned by members. My father was ahead of his time, and although he, personally, did not become as wealthy as a banker would have in doing essentially the same thing, he had peace of mind and that is something that cannot be bought or sold.

I am proud of my Dad. I only wish that he had lived longer than sixty-three years. He passed away close to thirty-three years ago. Yet, his fruits of his work live on, a multi-million dollar organization that is still service-oriented, and that he started with just a fifteen dollar deposit and a lot of faith.

At the present time, America’s Credit Union Museum in Manchester, NH has a special exhibit set up to honor my father, John E. Grace.

I still wish that he were here to tell me what he thinks of this concept of “shop and save.” If I were living in the nineteenth century, perhaps I would have to find some other interested parties and hold a seance…

http://www.quiltersmuse.com/granite_state_credit_union_founder.htm

Patricia Cummings

This week is International Credit Union Week. There are more than 157 million credit union members worldwide, so it is easy to see that the not-for-profit, member-owned organizations are alive and well.

Last Tuesday, a new exhibit devoted to my father’s life and Credit Union work was unveiled at America’s Credit Union Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire. Invited guests and dignitaries attended. The three speakers included Peter Hildreth, State Banking Commissioner, Denise Caristi, CEO of Granite State Credit Union, and me, the youngest daughter of John E. Grace, a man who founded a total of seventeen credit unions in the state during his lifetime including Utility Workers Credit Union, now called Granite State Credit Union.

John Grace was Manager/Treasurer of Utility Workers Credit Union that served members who worked for Public Service Co. of NH, and the Manchester Transit Authority. In June 1945, two months before the end of World War II, he founded UWCU. He started the organization with a $15.00 deposit which in today’s world would be the equivalent of about $169.00.

In March, I had called the CEO and had offered her a framed photo of my Dad. He passed away in 1974, and no one knew much of anything about John Grace, if they even remembered his name, so it was a great surprise to her to hear from me.

Based on ephemera and photos, I wrote a book about his life, one dedicated to the service of others. A very religious individual, my father belonged to many organizations, not the least of which were men’s Catholic groups and labor unions. Part of his success in establishing credit unions was his ability to give speeches and to network. His sense of humor and pleasant ways won hearts, as did his humility. He built the credit union via personal contacts and the trust of all who knew him as an honest man.
He was active in civic affairs and always participated in any way in which he could to help the two communities where he lived during most of his life, Manchester and Deerfield, NH. Now he is at peace, next to his wife of many years, and surrounded by the monuments of neighbors and friends he knew in the sleepy little town that was his last home. The praying hands that are carved into his/their gravestone tell the story of a faith-based life.

In ending my talk at the museum event, I quoted Robert Frost who once said that everything he had learned about life could be summed up in just three words: “It goes on.” Proof of this statement was clearly apparent, if one looked at the audience. Four of John Grace’s seven grandchildren, and three of his ten, soon to be eleven, great-grandchildren were in attendance. At three months old, and two years old (two of them), they are too little to understand the special event now, yet it is important that they were there. The two youngest boys in the greater family will have newspaper photos of themselves to “remember” the day. The Manchester Union Leader newspaper published on Monday, October 16, 2006 celebrated International Credit Union Week with a series of articles in the Business section.
Sometimes, something happens that will never be repeated. Even though my Dad never sought personal recognition or credit for anything he did, I can’t help but hope that he would be pleased with this posthumous tribute. I greatly appreciate my father’s contributions to his family and to the world at large, and I miss him dearly. Were he alive, he would be 95 years old. Although he lived to be only 63, he embraced life fully and gave it his best.

The museum exhibit will be in place for awhile, so if you are in the area, you would enjoy a trip there.

I am so thankful to America’s Credit Union Museum and Peggy Powell, Executive Director, for her assistance in planning the museum exhibit for my Dad. I salute Granite State Credit Union for underwriting the museum exhibit. Jody Ducharme, an employee of GSCU, was absolutely terrific in her attention to details while planning the special day. The designers who created a display panel and put together a display case of Dad’s artifacts, did wonderfully well. All who worked on food preparation outdid themselves. I am happy that so many friends and family members could be at the gala museum opening. Two nieces traveled all the way from California, and my son came up from Rhode Island. To all who helped in any way, if only by being present, we thank you for sharing this special event.

Family members attending the event were left to right: Loretta Grace, daughter-in-law of John Grace and her three month old granddaughter, Jenna Van Dyke; Amy Winterer De Noble of California, (granddaughter of John Grace); Patricia Grace Cummings, (daughter of John Grace), and her son, James Gorham of Rhode Island, (grandson of John Grace); Sandra Grace Van Dyke (youngest grandchild of John Grace), holding her two year old son, Garrett Van Dyke; and Audrey Winterer Chavez from California, (granddaughter of John Grace), with her two year old son, George Chavez.

See http://www.quiltersmuse.com/granite_state_credit_union_founder.htm
Patricia Cummings