The first thing that comes to mind to me is that since our kids were little we saved our change all year long in a change jar and then on New Year’s Eve it was our tradition to all stay up late, wrap and count it (we’d then trade it in and go on an overnight somewhere over MLK weekend). My story is we all hated having to count and wrap the pennies! All that work in one wrap for .50 cents?!!!
My other story is that I always thought that the Canadian penny was much prettier.
We saved our pennies our entire marriage (still do). When the kids were in elementary school, the whole family spent hours wrapping pennies over a period of time. This was before banks started charging for swapping pennies for dollars. We had enough money to take a wonderful trip to Disney World. We were able to pay for the tickets, on-property hotel and food from our penny savings. Our kids learned a lot about the power of saving from that experience. (Yes, I realize we missed out on the power of compounding interest, but they got that lesson when they were older!)
My dad was an electrician/train mechanic for the MBTA in South Boston for 30 years. When I was young he would take me to the train yard on the weekend occasionally. Before we left he would go put a few pennies on the track and let me drive the train over them.
My dad used to collect pennies. He’d go through them and fill books with them.
When I was a teenager, one evening after supper he was occupied doing that in the living room and Mom and I were doing the dishes. As usual she washed and I dried, and we chatted.
She asked me what Dad was doing. I replied, “He’s playing with his pennies.”
She burst into laughter. She and Dad were Italian immigrants, and the word “pennies” sounds like their dialect’s word for (ahem)…
Town i lived in from 75-82 had summer band concerts with carnival games. One was a penny pitch. The board was huge and had a bunch of squares with numbers in them. If your penny landed exactly on a square you got that amount back. I lost many pennies that way
I will pick up any and all spare change including pennies I see laying around on the floor of stores - a surprising number of people will leave change in the coin return at the registers. I put them in a jar, and every few weeks put them back in the registers when I go grocery shopping lol.
You’ve heard of pennies from heaven? I think about that since most of my family is gone, and laugh to myself when I find a nickel, dime or quarter (sometimes even an errant dollar bill!). My family was notoriously thrifty so I joke that mom/dad/my sister was feeling especially generous that day
Meijer stores still have the horse ride that takes a penny. I loved that whenever we grocery shopped and my kids asked if they could ride the horse, I could always say yes. There are generally a pile of pennies at the horse too, so even if I didn’t have one, we were good. I hope that continues on.
background: I am not religious, but grew up Catholic and took my kids to church while they went to K-8 Catholic school. For most of the time we had a fabulous and brilliant priest who had a very full life prior to entering the priesthood. Math major, hospital admin, married/divorced, raised 4 kids solo, professor at a uni in Beruit - where he was held hostage and put in front of a firing squad that led him to his calling. Anyhow, not your typical religious minister, and he was great. He was very easy going, and just made you want to be a better person.
So the penny story. He said that most people don’t bother to pick up pennies on the ground. They aren’t worth it, but he always does. He considers them reminders of all the little gifts from god.
That stuck with me and I always pick up pennies, remember him, and give thanks for all that I have.
