I was in an office supply store last week buying an ink cartridge. This is always a disconcerting visit, as it becomes obvious very quickly that I can purchase a new printer for less than four new ink cartridges. I could purchase a cheaper no name cartridge but my printer knows this.  When I pop in the counterfeit cartridge, my computer flashes a condescending message: 鈥淲ell, you bought cheap ink so don鈥檛 blame me if your documents come out looking like crap.鈥�

It was pointed out to me that we complain about the cost of gasoline, but if you calculate what we pay for a couple of ounces of printer ink, it works out to about $3,000 a litre.

I noticed a young mother buying school supplies, her kids trudging along behind her. She had the lists and was crisscrossing the aisles trying to find everything. A clerk pointed out that the supplies were packaged as to the grade requirements.

Mom had already figured out that the packages had stuff she didn鈥檛 need but were lacking things she did need, and of course the kids wanted much more than were on the lists. They don鈥檛 tell you about shopping for school supplies in pre-natal classes but the deep breathing and the pain and confusion of purchasing the right pencil crayons are part of motherhood.

Our Dad believed that money should be spent on meat and potatoes for the family and veterinary requirements for the animals. Any other expenses were a frivolous waste.

鈥淲hy do they need so many pencils? We had one pencil and that had to last us all year. Why all the notebooks? We had one scribbler that was for all our subjects. Why two erasers? The class had one eraser that sat on the teacher鈥檚 desk and we had to explain why we had made a mistake before we got to use it, so we just didn鈥檛 make mistakes. Why two kinds of paste and glue? We made perfectly good paste out of flour and water.鈥�

We become our fathers when we have kids. I remember going into a tirade about calculators. I know we had calculators galore somewhere at home, but no, now they had to be scientific calculators. I was recently opening drawers and cupboards looking for one of the 10 calculators we have stashed in the house when my son remarked, 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 you use the one on your cell phone?鈥�  Well sure enough, there is a calculator on my cell phone. But I鈥檒l bet the kids will need a 3D virtual one for class.

Back to school clothes shopping was worse and God forbid if you got grass stains or ripped those new jeans in the first week.  One year we got a notice saying the gym had a new floor and we could only have white-soled shoes for PE. It was another pair of shoes for Dad to buy. He would complain, 鈥淲e never had shoes, our Dad used to paint our feet black and lace up our toes!鈥�

Taking that notice home was like Moses bringing down the Ten Commandments; nobody was going to be happy with that message.

The first day of school, we were well dressed with all the right supplies in our desks. We learned to respect the value of what we were given and that is a valuable part of any education. At least that鈥檚 what McGregor says.