No cattle to feed when market fell

In 1961, Regina’s mother and father bought shares in a new bank in Covington County for $1,000.

They never bought more of the stock but faithfully reinvested the dividends and watched the investment appreciate for nearly half a century.

That stock eventually ended up as part of the giant Wachovia Bank that failed last week and Citigroup offered to gobble up $42 billion of its banking debts and the federal government another $312 billion.

By week’s end, Wells Fargo & Co. wanted to buy the carcass of the once-fine bank.

Monday, though, Wachovia stock was worth less than $1 a share.

“Happy birthday, Granny,” I said Tuesday night on the eve of her big day.

“I lost my butt on that bank stock,” she said, in reply, chuckling in an attempt to hide the pain.

“What I really lost was part of Regina and Bob’s inheritance,” she said, in a more serious tone.

Indeed, Wachovia stock was trading above $52 this time last year. By its close Wednesday, her birthday, it had climbed back to about $3.

Her plight played out all across the nation last week after the eerie 777-point stock market drop Monday. People her age were wondering who hijacked the old wisdom about investing in bank stock for stability.

We celebrated Granny’s birthday, her 90th, on Labor Day with a surprise party because so many family members could gather for the long weekend. But Regina said it wasn’t right for Granny to celebrate alone Wednesday and she surprised her mother with an overnight visit.

“She took her Wachovia losses all right,” Regina said. She’d been down before.

Murray died in 1993 but I can almost hear him saying, “Grace, I told you we should have bought more cattle with that money.”

Her response would have been something like, “Murray, how many times has the bottom dropped out of the cattle market and left you just as broke?”

At least Granny doesn’t have to go out and feed worthless cattle.