Un-Common Cents

One of my favorite tricks to pull when I was young was to wet my hands in the sink, sneak up behind an unsuspecting victim, wipe them off on their face and say, “there are quarters in the toilet!” Their reactions were always worth the repercussions I experienced. I never knew, however, that there might really be quarters in the toilet. To me it always seemed to be such an illogical place to keep spare change.

Mom inherited a lot of great qualities and attributes from Grandma Allen like great musical and cooking abilities. One the other great things mom has inherited from grandma was a desire to be frugal in all money matters. This became apparent on our trip to Florida.

One morning before a big day at Disney, Marissa and I were sitting in the hotel room waiting for mom to finish getting ready and for dad to return with breakfast. Suddenly, a shriek came from the bathroom which immediately turned our attention from the TV to mom. We questioned mom as to the cause of her cry and she answered quite seriously, “I dropped money in the toilet!” Apparently, mom was pouring the contents out of her purse in the bathroom and some of it fell right where things don’t return. By this time dad had returned with breakfast and mom summoned him to fetch out the money. He, like both Marissa and I, refused to retrieve the dirty money. All three of us then sat on the beds and listened to the groanings and moanings of mom as she carefully fished out the twenty-six cents she dropped in the pot. It was thoroughly entertaining.

A little advice for the grandkids - if grandma offers to pay you twenty-six cents to do a favor, ask her to write out a check.