. >> now it's my pleasure to interviews kathryn smith. kathryn smith is a journalist and history writer with a long-time interest in fdr and his time. she is the biographer of marguerite alice, who is fdr's private secretary, counselor, confidante until 1941 and defacto white house chief of staff. in addition to her book "the gate keeper", kathryn authors a mystery series with kelly durham and impersonates lahan for tell-all talks for life with the roosevelts, and given more than 100 presentations at the library, little white house, and the national world war ii museum. her most recent book is baptists and bootleggers, a prohibition expedition throughout the south with cocktail recipes and the repeal. 18th amendment one of the greatest achievements of the early new deal and she lives in south carolina with her husband leo. please welcome -- join me in welcoming kathryn smith. [applause] >> well, i was telling patrick, if i had samples i might have drawn in bigger crowds today. baptists and bootleggers, you might wonder how i came up with

kathryn turned to her son for financial help. >> it makes things a little easier. >> reporter: 79-year-old ron longhurst cut back. >> taking longer between haircuts. >> reporter: 82-year-old ann smithn on her favorite simple pleasure, drinking soda. >> you're actually watching your coca-cola budget? >> yeah. it's tripled. >> reporter: seniors on a fixed income had been hit particularly hard by inflation with september prices up 8.2% from a year ago. even worse in areas like tampa, florida where the housing market exploded. rything is going u 67-year-old johnson says her family's rent in tampa jumped $350 to $3100 a month and with other bills surging, it's thrown their budget into chaos. >> i never had to worry about how we were going to eat. >> reporter: they already have boxes packed expecting another rent hike when their lease ends. the retired university counselor and her husband a retired engineer and teacher moved here from michigan but so far, price hikes are stealing their retirement dream. >> we're middle income with less to work with than when we worked full-time and we have worked hard. we've been honest. why is it going in reverse? >> reporter: next year, social security