A Penny Saved........

I've been collecting pennies in a big 5 quart mason jar most of my life which was almost filled up to the top. Recently I had this jar in my hall cupboard which has turned into a junk whole. It was at the point that if I opened the cupboard door something would usually fall out on one of my children's head. I've been on a quest to dejunk my house the past few weeks and decided to battle the junk cupboard. I made an executive decision that this mason jar takes up too much space and it was time to take it to coin star ( a big green machine that will count the change and exchange it for cash or a gift card). One afternoon my girls and I set out on a little adventure to a nearby grocery store to unload this jar into the coinstar. As I started dumping all my pennies down the slot I realized how attached I was to this jar of pennies. It was sad seeing them disappear. I thought about being inspired one day by my sister Brooke sitting on our family room floor and carefully rolling her coins from her jar and then taking them to the bank. Finding the jar and cutting a slot in the top with one of my mom's kitchen knives. The sound of those first few pennies I found around the house dropping to the bottom wondering if I'll ever fill it up. I thought about all the jobs I had that contributed to filling up the jar.... Babysitting....my first real job at 12 as a dishwasher with my sister Brooke as the waitress at the Rim Rock and coming home with 15 dollars and a small cut of her tips in my pocket each night......hating every minute of my job when I became a waitress but sticking it out for the money (I'm sure the majority of the pennies came from that time)........leaving it for a time during college and then reclaiming it when I got married....Bart adding his spare coins and then occasionally digging into it for some change to walk down to rite aid, usually toting one or both girls in a front pack or stroller, to print a picture to mail off with an autograph and of course to get a treat for his girls. It's funny how something so common as a mason jar full of pennies could elicit such memories. In the end the total was 8 quarters, 88 Dimes, 32 Nickels and 2072 pennies= $33.12.