As I sat at home several weeks ago, wondering to myself what I could do with the few measly dollars I had in my wallet, I started to wonder if things had always been this bad. Had my parents' generation had such a hard time resolving the differences between their desire to have fun and their empty wallets? What about my grandparents' generation• Did they ever find themselves frustrated when they ended up spending a boring weekend at home due to a lack of money? What about the generation before them• And the generation before them• Has entertainment been as money oriented since the dawn of mankind or is this a fairly new phenomenon? I resolved to find out and began my research. Unfortunately I didn't have the resources to study prehistoric man's social habits, so I settled for the next best thing. My friend Pete Shuss, 70, enjoyed his teen-age years in the '40s. He would usually go out once a week. One of his favorite activities was to attend dances. When he was feeling a little more active he would go camping or bike riding. If he was feeling very energetic, he would engage in the most exhausting of all activities, chasing girls. When he went out, he would usually spend a couple of dollars on the night. Regretfully, a job was necessary to sustain this regular spending of money. Even with a job, Pete found that he didn't have enough money to go out as much as he would like to. 'Oh yes,' he said. ' I did a lot of free things for a lack of money.' Although he couldn't always do the things he wanted to because of a lack of funding, did he manage to still have a good time• 'Sure! I had a lot of fun.' Next, I interviewed my mother, Denise Salmond, 40. I was sure that with all of her nagging at me to get a job, she would have experienced trials similar to my own. When she was younger she would attend dances, go to the movies, participate in church activities, hang out with her friends, listen to music, and read. She would go out about once a week and usually would spend $3 or $4. She said she usually had enough money to go out when she wanted. Well did she need a job to have the money? 'No. My mom paid for everything,' she said. As soon as she has said it, my dear mother realized her terrible mistake. 'But things were a lot cheaper then,' she tried to explain. 'It is very different nowadays.' I decide that, for the sake of this article, I will not argue the point right now so I press on with the questions. So, did she manage to have fun when she was doing things that didn't cost money? 'Oh yes! In fact I would say that I had the most fun then. Hanging out with my friends was my favorite thing to do,' she said. Nice try, Mom, but it's not going to work. You'll be hearing from my lawyer very soon. Finally, I review my own financial situation and how it affects my fun. I usually go out at least two times a week. I usually have a hard time deciding what to do. I often end up going to movies, hanging out at coffee shops, hanging out at friends' houses, or playing music with my band. On an average night I will often spend $15 to $20. I definitely need a job to pay for this. With all of my complaining, I find that I usually do have enough money to do what I want. I guess that might be due to working several nights a week. I initially thought that I had plenty of things to do that were free. Then I thought about it some more and realized that it could be argued that a gaming console that costs a couple of hundred dollars, plus at least $50 for each game, can't really be considered free. Neither could a CD player that cost a couple of hundred dollars and CDs that cost almost $20 each. I tried to think of things that I do with my friends that really don't cost money and realized that I couldn't think of anything. Could I have fun without money• The only thing I can think of that I do with my friends that doesn't cost money is just hanging out at someone's house. That's fun, but I imagine I would get bored with it after a while, as I seem to get bored with just about everything. After a careful analysis of the situation, I concluded that while the basic problem has been there throughout the past three generations, the way that it was dealt with was different. The solution of Pete's generation seems to have been to go out into the great outdoors and enjoy the free fun that nature provided. By my mother's generation, their every last need was apparently taken care of by their parents (a fact that will soon be readdressed with my own parents). When this failed though, there still seemed to be things to do. They could hang out with friends or go to church activities. Neither of these cost any money, but they were every bit as satisfying as expensive form forms of entertainment. Nowadays, at least from my experience, when the money runs out, so does the fun. It appears that we have become more money oriented as people. In our culture it seems that if something doesn't cost money it isn't worth doing. When there is something that we like we need more of it than people used to. What has caused this• I'm not really sure, but I know that I am going to try to learn from this article and try and have fun without spending money. Can it be done• I don't know, but I doubt that things could have changed that much. Joe Salmond, 18, is a senior at Plum High School and member of Richard Williams' oral history class.

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