A Penny's Worth of Thoughts

How long since you stopped and bent over to pick one filthy penny from that germ laden dirt?  In today's economy, that seems almost a silly question but I want to take you back to another time in a place that I have written much about in the "Okie Magazine" of Lawton, OK.  My features were titled Memories of Yesteryear.  I wrote through the rose colored glasses of old memories.

Let's return to that penny in the dirt and go back to that different time when even the prosperous would not hesitate to gather that penny.

For a little child, that penny would buy some delicious candy; many varieties from which to choose.  Most cigarettes were hand rolled by the smoker and four of those pennies bought a package of Bull Durham or Duke's Mixture tobacco with a pack of cigarette paper thrown in.

Many times people were cold and hungry.  Five of those pennies bought a large cup of steaming hot coffee that was refilled without charge and you could have a doughnut (donuts hadn't been invented yet) or a cinnamon roll with your coffee (Better  than Starbuck ever brewed).  Out on the street corner was a man selling shiny red apples; five pennies each.

When you were lucky enough to have fifteen pennies, you had a delicious hot bowl of stew or chili with unlimited catsup and crackers.  A few places just gave you that cup of coffee free of charge.  Of course a huge hamburger was also fifteen pennies.

When you were both wealthy and hungry, the cafe with the nice table cloths would serve that large platter of chicken fried steak for twenty five pennies; milk or coffee was five pennies more. 

These prices sound very reasonable unless you are the man who worked twelve long hours at hard labor for one silver dollar; 100 pennies.