FUTURE USES OF THE PAST

Because of my strong feeling that offering our own histories to today's readers will give them wiser perspectives on bettering their own lives, I have written three memoirs of my experiences in the most critical periods of the past century.

 As the country -- in fact the world -- stands teetering on the brink, trying to escape another major slump, my tales of living through the Great Depression of the Thirties becomes more and more pertinent. That was in my student days, when we learned a hundred ways of surviving -- even enjoying -- life with much  ingenuity but little cash.

 Now we become maudlin over old memories of dates spent on the Hudson River on summer evenings, when the ferry to New Jersey cost a nickel, no matter how many times you crossed. Or how we could see a Broadway matinee -- and lunch for a total of $1.05. Them were the days, as Archie used to say.