The Coin Holder

 

As long as I can remember, my dad ALWAYS carried two things in his pants pocket…a pocket knife…and a coin holder. 

You know…one of those rubbery football-shaped things that when you squeezed the ends, it opened up and you could drop coins in, or take coins out. 

It had a good purpose I think. If you had a pocket full of change along with car keys or that pocket knife and reached in your pocket to pull your keys out, it kept your coins from flying all over. 

Anyway…as a 6-7-8 year old I walked home from school every day and I always stopped at the hardware store where dad worked. It was about 4 blocks from the school to ‘downtown’ Owensville where the hardware store was located. Just a few buildings away from the hardware store was Bates Drug Store where there was an abundant supply of 'penny' candy of every sort. From the drug store, it was about 3 blocks to our house. 

So anyway, I’d stop at the hardware store, reach in dads’ pocket and get his coin holder, find a dime, walk to the drug store, get my 10 cents worth of candy that penny candy that they’d put in one of those ‘little’ brown paper bags, and head home. Probably more times than not…the candy was gone before I ever got home. 

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of those coin holders since dad died. I rarely have coins in my pocket for very long these days. If I do get change, I usually put it in our piggy bank when I get home. Then once a year I’ll cash the piggy bank in and we’ll use the money to buy something we’ve been looking for. 

That was never an option for dad. If he had change…I found an immediate need for it. The candy store! And it all started...with that coin holder.

REMEMBER: 

In life, it’s important to know when to stop arguing with people and simply let them be wrong. 

Be talkin’ to ya. 

Dan

Spring Chores are Callin'

The weather is warming up. The snow has melted and spring rains have started. All the water combined with the fertilizer I put on the lawn on a warm day last month has turned the lawn green and the growth has begun. Lumps of grass here-and-there need leveled off.

My mower needs a spring overhaul…change the blades, change the oil, air the tires, level the deck, put the battery back on and hope it still holds a charge. 

Then there’s the mulch that needs touched up. 

The winds have brought dust and dirt onto the windows so the screens need taken out and windows cleaned. 

The deck didn’t like a month worth of snow sitting on it and needs power washed and re-stained. 

The driveway needs some cracks filled and then re-sealed. 

The garden needs tilled and ready for some flowers to be planted. 

I’m exhausted just thinking about it all.

REMEMBER: 

If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person. ---Mr. Fred Rogers

Be talkin’ to ya.

Dan

The WORK Dream

 
About 18 months before I retired, Cindy and I were at our grandsons’ baseball game and we ran into an old workmate who had retired about 6 months prior to that game. Her grandson and ours go to different schools and, on this day, were playing baseball against each other. They both also play AAU basketball and have been teammates for several years so they have a competitive but respectful friendship. 

Anyway, while talking to Michelle she told me she recently had her first ‘work’ dream...that is...a dream about being back at work that she had retired from 6 months before. 

Flash forward about 2 years and Michelle and I met up again at a sporting event and I told her that I too had had the ‘work’ dream after retiring. I asked her if she still was having any work dreams and she said no. I, however, continue to have them several times a month. Each one is a little different…explaining a procedure to a patient…starting an IV… telling a doctor what I found…are just a few I recall. I guess after 42 years, it’s difficult to totally forget your old routine. 

Funny...nearly 50 years after finishing high school...I still have a dream every year or so about being back in high school. As I remember, they’re kinda stressful dreams…like trying to find my locker but not remembering which one is mine…or being in class, having the teacher pass out test papers and thinking…I haven’t studied for this! 

The nice thing about those school dreams is that my classmates and I are still 18 years old.

REMEMBER: 

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

Be talkin’ to ya.
Dan

A Million Dollars.....gone

A recent news article states quarterback Tom Brady’s rookie football card sold for $1.32 million. 

Sadness overcame me as I read this and thought back to the 1960s when I was buying baseball cards. For a nickel, you got a pack of 5 cards with various baseball players and a slab of bubble gum that chewed like a Michelin tire. I didn’t really collect the cards for any purpose other than to chew that gum, tell friends I had somebody’s card and to use the card to put on the tires of my bicycle to make it sound like a motorcycle when the spokes rubbed the card. 

Some of the baseball stars from those days included Mickey Mantle, Lou Brock, Harmon Killebrew, Hank Aaron and Pete Rose among many others. I have no doubt that I had a card for most if not all of those guys that simply got tore up in my fake motorcycle. 

Had I only had the knowledge that they would be a good retirement investment I would of put them away instead of throwing them away. 

Water under the bridge I guess.

REMEMBER:
Be yourself, everyone else is taken.

Be talkin’ to ya.
Dan