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???A penny saved is a penny hard to spend.???
For a long time Johnnie
and I have put our left over change in a quart fruit jar
each day. We keep that fruit jar in the bottom of the
kitchen cabinet.
The other day Johnnie said
we had four quart fruit jars full of change in the cabinet
and she thought it was time we got them out and deposited
them in the bank.
About six or seven years
ago we took a large sack of coins to the bank and they had
us leave them and a deposit slip. They had a machine that
would separate and count the coins. Then they would fill
out the deposit slip and mail us a copy.
But banks have changed a
lot since then. When we took our coins to the bank they
told us they didn??™t do that any more. We would have to
separate the coins and put them in rolls before we could
deposit them. They gave us the paper rolls to put our coins
in and told us to be very careful when counting the coins,
because they weighed each roll. This would let them know if
a roll was short a coin or two.
When we got back home with
our sack of coins, I told Johnnie I wasn??™t going to sit
there for hours counting and rolling coins. She said she
didn??™t like the idea either. She would just spend them.
The next time she went to
the grocery store she dumped a big hand full of the coins in
her purse. When it was her time to check out, her bill was
$46.02. She reached into her purse and grabbed a hand full
of coins and started counting. Most of them were pennies.
The checker stood there with her mouth open for an instant
and then said,
???ah, ma-am your holding up
the line.???
???You want paid, don??™t
you???? Johnnie answered.
The checker called her
supervisor and showed him what Johnnie was doing. By this
time Johnnie have counted out $2.31 in pennies, $1.85 in
nickels and $1.30 in dimes. The supervisor asked the
checker how much the bill was and she told him $46.02.
???Lady we can??™t hold up
this line while you count out $46.02 in coins.???
???Fine??? Johnnie said and
she dumped all of the coins on the counter. ???You count
them.???
The supervisor said, ???I
think there??™s enough to cover your groceries, just go, and
don??™t come back. You??™re no longer welcome in this store.???
When Johnnie told me about
her experience, I asked her if she thought there was $46
worth of coins in that pile.
???I have no idea, but it
was humiliating to be told not to ever come back to that
store.???
A few days later Johnnie
took a purse full of coins and went to sears to buy a set of
sheets for my bed. I sleep on an extra long twin bed so it
takes special sheets to fit it. They always cost more then
regular sheets and are hard to find.
She was lucky this day and
found a set of sheets in the extra long twin size. There
was a fitted sheet, a flat sheet and a pillow case in the
package. It was marked $24.95.
She took it to the
cashier, and with tax the bill was $26.94. Johnnie started
counting out her coins and the cashier got this panic look
on her face. The cashier picked up the phone and called for
her supervisor.
When the supervisor got
there, Johnnie was counting away.
???Three dollars and
twenty-one, three dollars and twenty-two, three dollars and
twenty-three.???
???What are you doing?, the
supervisor asked.
???Paying for my sheets.???
Johnnie told him.
???I can??™t accept all those
pennies.???
Johnnie said, ???They are
legal United States money and I can spend them any where I
want to. Open your cash register and see how many you have
to give in change.???
Well. after Johnnie got
home with the sheets, she told me she wasn??™t going to go
through all the hassle of trying to spend the coins again.
She told me that I was going to have to spend them.
That night after I went to
bed on my new sheets, I was laying there thinking about all
that change when I had an idea of how to get red of it. I
went to sleep with a smile on my face.
The next morning at the
breakfast table, I told Johnnie about my idea. She clapped
her hands and said, ???That will kill two birds with one
stone. I won??™t have to do any more shopping and it will get
red of all the coins. From now on we are going to spend our
change as we get it, no more saving it.???
Now I guess you want to
know what my idea was. Ok, here is what we did. We put all
the change we had left in pint fruit jars and packed the top
with cotton before we put the lids on. This way the coins
would not rattle against the lid. Then we wrapped the jars
in Christmas paper and tied a big bow on them.
We gave them to our kids
and grand kids for Christmas gifts.
?© copyright 2003 Loren
Moore
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To read archived stories, click on this link:
http://archives.zinester.com/9516/2004
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Blessings to you today
Bob Johnston
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