A PENNY.... FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

That hot July day in 1938, we moved---towing a cotton

trailer from Dawson County, Texas  to the old house behind 

the Magic Steam Laundry, Clovis, N.M at 417 West Grand.

I was four-and-a half...had never been anywhere...and knew

nothing about MONEY. Or what it could do...

And I had never even heard the old saw "Money is the root

of all evil." Money was the least of my worries. That 

was to change. My little eyes were soon to be opened.

Now Dad worked hard in that laundry, turning out the

finest starched dress shirts for fifteen cents each, as well 

as handling all other  kinds of dirty clothes, including from

cafés, motels, and hospitals. 

He worked 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.---six days a week.

Dad smoked. cigarettes--- Avalons and Camels. They were 

twelve cents a pack.

I know, because there was a little grocery store a block 

west of the laundry at the corner of West Grand and 

Hinkle. Dad would give me a dime and nickel and say:

"Run to Tom's 'Red-and White' store and get me a pack

of Avalons. You can keep the three cents!"

He had said "run," and I did! For I had learned that Tom

had a whole counter full of one cent candies and jars

full on top---to boot.

(It's strange, I know for the younger generation to grasp

the fact that a company could manufacture a piece of

candy, wrap it, ship it, wholesale and  retail it---and make

a profit... at one cent per piece.)

Oh, but those were hard times. Men worked for a dollar 

a day.

Anyway,  what a penny could buy and do for a boy's

happiness! And I had three!

Today it's hard to remember all the choices. There were

jaw breakers, penny suckers, tiny Tootsie Rolls, and Fleer's

Double Bubble Gum, with "funnies." Tiny funnies...

You could even get teensy Baby Ruths, Hershey's Kisses,

Bit 'o Honeys, Snickers, little O Henrys...all one-biter bars 

like they now sell for Halloween handouts.

Of course you could get these same candy bars---much

bigger--- for a nickel.

We bought "liquish"pieces for a cent, as well as 

those fascinating little miniature wax bottles full of a  

Koolade-type swallow...then you chewed the wax bottle.

O it is sad---you who came along later in time in the

good old USA---you missed a certain innocence that 

prevailed in those times. We had no TV's but "radioed"

and used our imaginations to picture stories.

We'd never even conceived of an iPad, a smart phone,

a phone camera,  texting, tweeting, or computer games.

The main event-of-the-week in our lives was likely 

the Saturday afternoon double feature, serial, and 

cartoon at the Lyceum Theater.  With popcorn it

cost us fifteen of those beloved Lincoln pennies.

There were in those days in the land what were called

"FIVE AND TEN CENT STORES." It's true. Clovis had

two---one almost next door to the Lyceum...and of 

course the biggie---and our favorite---WOOLWORTH'S

at the SE corner of Fourth and Main.

With those marvelous big red letters going clear around

the front of the store onto Fourth, that store was what

one might call "the Beauty Mark of Main Street!"

After the double feature at the Lyceum on those Saturday

afternoons, we'd "shop" at many of the stores and wind

up at Woolworth's getting their famous Ham Salad

Sandwich for 20 cents over in the deli on the south side
of the store.

I haven't even mentioned the candy store across the 

street from La Casita where the kids would congregate

about 12:45 p.m., after lunch at home or brown bagging---

Kids would flock into that store, some without pennies--

there just to watch and salivate---and others, more lucky,

would buy all manner of penny candies---which had to

be eaten quickly before the bell at 12:56 p.m.

There were machines all over town in those times...wanting

your pennies. You could buy colored chewing gum balls

for a cent...drop a penny in and weigh...or even get a little

"read-your-fortune" card, which came out through a slot!

You readers can probably supply stories re: candies and

uses for penny's that I have been unable to recall.

I hope that someday, some "bright" lawmaker doesn't come

up with idea "Oh look, I've determined we can save a billion 

$ a year by doing away with pennies...copper is expensive."

We would lose a dear, important piece of Americana, 

never to be recovered...and the politicians would give our 

billion dollars away to some country they visited while

on vacation.

....never to be paid back...and our pennies would be gone.

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THE LINCOLN PENNY...A BRIEF HISTORY

***********************************

August 2, 1909 was a big important day in the history of

the USA, for on that day, in a simpler, more innocent time,

Americans stood in lines at banks all over the nation to

obtain handfuls of the new Lincoln Penny, with the image

of "wheat" on the reverse.

Twenty-seven million of the new coins were struck and the

penny's popularity stemmed from people's love of Abe, and 

also the fact that it was the first US coin to bear a human 

face.

"LIBERTY" had up to that time, appeared on most coins.

The image of Lincoln was created by Victor David Brenner,

who had been recommended by President Theodore

Roosevelt, who had seen a previous work on Lincoln by

Brenner.

For over a hundred years the penny has kept Lincoln on

the obverse side of the penny, but the Wheat reverse was

replaced in 1959 by the Lincoln Memorial.

A third reverse-- the Lincoln Shield was substituted in 2010.

*****************

By MIL

18 January 2017

 Credit LCC for coin photos.