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A jar of coins

A Jar of Coins

I had a jar of coins placed in the bottom cupboard as a child.

I wanted to move away from Ohio to Arizona where it was warm

because our old farmhouse was very cold.

I collected long neck brown Buckeye beer bottles and soda pop bottles and saved the money.

I picked red raspberries by standing on an old galvanized pail because I was too small to

reach the tops of the bushes then I sold them to neighbors for twenty five cents a basket.

Old lady Dolan complained to my Ma that I stuffed paper in the bottom of the basket and

cheated her...but I explained to Ma that it was just a small sheet of papers that I placed

there so the berries would not fall out the basket. this was the time before paper towels

or green plastic berry baskets. I saved this money also.

One day I came home from school and saw I had no coins in the jar.

I asked Ma and she said she took it for food.

Both my parents worked and I thought it unfair that my saved money

was used without my permission ...I would have given it to them if they had asked...

I never saved money from that day on unless I hid it outside buried under a rock.