Jar Of Pennies

My neighbor's granddaughter stayed at her place last night. I remember staying at my grandmother's house overnight. Sometimes my friend would come too. (The friend who, years later, lent me her dollhouse.) Looking back on this now, it was really nice of my grandparents to take both me and a friend overnight.

I remember one time, the three of us had just finished playing a game; My friend, my grandmother, and I. It might have been a board game, or a card game, or possibly even dominos (most likely.) When I won, my grandmother presented me with a jar full of pennies, about the size of a small/medium peanut butter jar, and enthusiastically told me that this was my prize.

I was five years old (my friend was six). Do you know what a jar full of pennies looks like to a five year old? I thought there must have been at least two hundred dollars in there. Maybe more. It could even have been a million dollars. Whatever it was, I was certain it was my grandparents' life savings and that without this 16 oz jar of pennies they'd be destitute, homeless, and living on the streets by noon.

I thanked my grandmother and told her that I couldn't accept the prize and that she should really keep it for herself! I wanted her to. She was completely baffled by my reaction. What kind of five year old turns down a jar FULL of pennies?! (A five year old who doesn't want to be responsible for her grandparents living out of a cardboard box! That's who!) "It's MONEY!" she told me! (Which made me feel worse!) "You're the winner! You won! This is your prize! Come on! Take it!" she cheerfully insisted. I was horrified at the possible ramifications of the monumental error in judgement she was making, and resolutely kept telling her "no."

Finally, she gave up on me, turned to my friend and said "All right then, you take it!" And do you know what my friend did? She lunged forward with her arms outstretched and screamed "Ok!!!"

-I won't bore you with the details of what happened next, but sufficeth to say, she gave the pennies back!