On Wheels: A Year's Salary

At the Baltimore library last week, I discovered Franklin E. Huffman's "Monks and Motorcycles," a trilling diary of the author's 1958 trip from Laos to India on a one-lung BWM 250. The motorcycle passages are intriguing, but I preferred his stories about cruising around Europe with his Air Force brother later that year. Just before he returns to Virginia, Huffman borrows $200 from his brother for down payment on a Triumph TR-3, which he has shipped. Then he goes home and finds a teaching job, which pays in a year what he owes on the Triumph loan:

We are never again as rich as when we're still single; if I wanted to spend all my money on a sports car and live on bread and water, it was my decision. Later in life we may have a lot more money, but less disposable income after paying for the mortgage, insurance, groceries and orthodontists -- it's all "corporate funds."