Word: munson
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Middle-Income. The Munson family of Geneva, 111.-Judy, 27, Lester Jr., 28, and two sons aged nine weeks and 20 months-spends its income of about $16,000 on things that older people might consider luxuries but that the Munsons regard as necessities. They have greatly increased their living standards in the four years since they married. Munson is an associate in his father's law firm, and last September the family moved from a Chicago apartment to a $32,500 house in the exurbs...
...Munson protests the rising cost of plastic baby pants (69? a pair v. 29? less than two years ago) and of teen-agers who come in as "mother's helpers" four mornings a week (they now charge $1.25 an hour, up from 75? a year ago). She has furnished the house with used pieces rather than new furniture. She thought of economizing by making her own clothes, but concluded that there would be no saving "because the price of fabric has skyrocketed. To make an average dress, including lining, costs...
Entertainment is a must item for the Munsons. "When you're still young, and when you have two babies, this is one place where you don't want to cut down-if only for sanity's sake," says Mrs. Munson. She and her husband have substituted a local movie for their former weekly trip into Chicago, where they used to see plays. They hold one dinner party a week, even though Mrs. Munson complains that it costs an "absolute minimum...
...Munson, the building inspector who would force parents to obtain tree-house permits [July 7] for the safety of their kids. And a plague on him for daring to suggest specifications. Shall we add this to the burgeoning list of personality-stifling, scarlet-taped "blueprints for living" that add so much pallor to American childhood these days? Can a boy build his Shangri-la with a mind cluttered by requirements for 1-in. floor boards, two-by-four framing and 42-in.-high walls? Can he grow into the resourceful, inventive, self-sufficient man he's expected...
...Munson is in dead earnest-and so are Riverhead parents who have swamped him with calls accusing him of being an ogre who is blocking the natural development of children. "Everywhere I go, people come up and call me the Big Bad Wolf or worse," says Munson. "They say I'm taking the fun out of childhood, when all I'm trying to do is remove some of the danger...