That Dime Could Stay There All Week
The time nine year old me got philosophical.
Many of my happiest childhood memories are from visits to my grandma Louise’s house. Our visits were full of games, crafts, watching game shows, birdwatching, and eating French toast and Chinese food.
On one visit I noticed a dime just sitting by itself on an end table.
My grandma had several friends and family members who would come regularly to visit, but she lived alone.
My grandpa had died before I was born. I was told she coped by ordering way too much stuff off of the Home Shopping Network. She also never took his name down off the sign they had outside their house. She didn’t want it to be obvious she was a woman living by herself.
I stared at the dime and it hit me that most of the time she could set a dime down (or anything for that matter) and it would just be there until she moved it.
I’ve never been in a living situation where I could set something down and expect it to be in the same place several days later.
First I lived with my parents and sibling. Then roommates. Then my wife. And now my kids. Never alone.
Not that I tend to carry change around, but I would never leave a dime sitting around now. I’d be too worried…
