Quarters On End

I was born in a small logging community called Granite Falls. Dad was a logger, and having a difficult time making ends meet, so you know we didn't have a lot of money as a family, especially for the non-essentials of life.

I wanted some money to spend - you know, for the finer things in life - so I decided to sell Christmas cards. In the day one could buy a comic book and look at the last couple of pages to find "business opportunities." The ad I had my eye on was one where all I had to do was sell a box of 24 Christmas cards, get payment from my clients, send in the order form, receive and distribute the boxes of cards, and collect my share of the money. The whole enterprise worked very well: I sold enough boxes to fund my dream - a 22 caliber rifle!

It took quite a while to amass the fortune I needed for the rifle, so I had a lot of money laying around the house. I had other odd jobs like picking and selling quarts and gallons of blackberries, helping with the haying at Oscar Sandman's place, and fighting with Rick Ross across the street. Pretty soon I had lots and lots of coins collected in a cardboard cigar box hidden under my bed.

I loved the coins. I converted all of the pennies, nickels and dimes to quarters and I stacked them up, polished them with the stub eraser from the end of a pencil, stood them on end like dominoes and knocked them down only to start all over again.

Dad happened to walk into my bedroom one day as I was standing quarters on their edges. If you haven't tried doing that, you'll find it's not easy to do, it takes a lot of time, and you have to have a steady hand to do it. Try it for yourself!

Dad asked how many of the quarters I could stand on edge, and I replied I thought I might be able to stand near 200 of them on edge. Dad said "I've never seen anyone stand that many quarters on edge before. I tell you what I'll do. I'll give you a dime for every quarter you can stand on edge."

Eager to add 200 dimes to my stash of coins, I started furiously standing quarters on edge. I managed nearly 200 when I had to quit. Some quarters are so warn that they just won't be stood up.

I called Dad in to collect my dimes. He asked for a count, and I gave him one. He congratulated me on doing something he'd never seen done before, counted out the right number of dimes, handed them to me ......... and swept all of the quarters and put them in his pocket.

I was dumbfounded! I spluttered ..... "Those are MY quarters! What are YOU doing?"

He laughed that laugh he does when he's truly amused, and said " If you remember, I said 'I'll give you a quarter for each dime you can stand on edge.' If I'm right, that's exactly what I've done." Turning, he took a smile that might have been a smirk with him as he walked from the room.

I was still frustrated beyond words; it took many years for me to really appreciate the lesson I'd been taught!