Thursday, March 31, 2011

the one (cent) that got away

"Find a penny, pick it up. All day long you'll have good luck."

I am that person. I have probably found over ten dollars in change in my lifetime if not more. When I find a penny, I pick it up. I often find nickels, dimes sometimes quarters and even bills. Last year, in New York City, on our mission trip I found $1.22! I found eleven cents in Nashville. And while you can joke and make fun of me all you want, this change adds up.

I have an eye for change. I can quickly distinguish between a shiny wrapper and a dirty penny. The students on the mission trip teased me and told me they were going to go around Grand Rapids dropping change and then follow me with a camera to see if I got all of it. Sometimes I do wonder if someone isn't hiding, watching me pick up all of this change.

I have stopped in the middle of crossing the street to pick up a coin. Today was different. Bill and I were taking our walk as usual. As we walked across the street, traffic was busier than normal. A bus was turning out from the street and I think a car or two were waiting to turn. In a split second I saw the penny. It was down in the cracked pavement. As the bus loomed ever closer, I fought the urge to stop and pick it up. It was too much trouble to risk getting hit by the bus who probably wouldn't understand this pedestrian stopping in the middle of the street. For a penny.

But those pennies add up. And I will look for it on our next walk.

2 comments:

  1. Over a year or two, you should take all the change and money you find on the street and keep it in a big jar, and then, when the year is up, take it to the bank and see how much you have. I'm getting it would be a pretty penny (pun intended) -- people fund vacations that way.

    Laundry day for me is the biggest money maker in this house -- on average, I make about $6/laundry day from Patrick's pants pockets!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We have a very large glass "jar" (vase? container? dish? jug?) that we throw all of our loose change into. We did cash it in for our Anniversary trip to Chicago last summer (before we knew you, otherwise we would have called). Unfortunately, not every year is a good year. Although we wound up with $40+ last time. My goal is to fill it and see how much it holds. It wasn't even a third of the way full when we cashed it in.

    ReplyDelete