I grew up in an area of Los Angeles called Mar Vista. To the west was Venice Beach. To the south was Culver City and the enormous MGM movie lot (oh, how I wanted to get in there!). Soon after I entered 1st grade at Mar Vista Elementary School my father died. After about a year of enormous issues, my mother found a job and for the next six years raised me and my older brother on a very small income. Shopping was a money-saving ordeal. Groceries were bought at three or four markets which experience taught my mother had the best prices for the highest quality. There's nothing wrong with being frugal like that, but the last thing a six-year-old boy wanted to do on a sunny weekend day was get