I heard Tony and Britnee in the dining room, sorting change last night and it brought back a memory so strong I immediately wanted to be in my parent's house, in the living room, listening to my dad jingle change in his hand, hearing him say, "Who wants to play the money game?" Of course, no one ever said no to this question!
The money game was easy enough but there were rarely any winners. Sometimes it would be a handful of change, sometimes bills from his wallet and on rare occasions, it would include ALL the change in a coffee can that Dad had been saving for quite a while. I remember someone winning $20 once and it almost seems like someone won $100 one time.
The rules were simple. 1. No two guesses could be the same and 2. Most of the time you had to guess the exact amount.
But the time that sticks out most in my mind was one night when several family members were present and Dad brought out a coffee can. He must have been feeling generous that night (or else he was in a gambling mood) because he told us our guesses only had to come within 25 cents of the actual amount. In reality, that gave us a 50 cent leeway since we could be 25 cents under or over. At any rate, we went around the room and stated our guess. Some of us probably lifted the coffee can and tried to give an even more educated guess. Once all the totals were laid out, the fun began. The coffee can was dumped and everyone gathered around the table and sorted. Dimes over here, pennies there, nickels on this side and quarters on that. We stacked them in piles of 1os and 4s then grouped them into dollars.
When the sorting, piling, grouping and counting was done most of us weren't even close to the 85 dollar and some odd cents total . But my nephew, Paul (PJ as we called him back then :) had guessed within...are you ready for this?
He begged and pleaded with Papa to share the wealth with him. I begged and pleaded Papa to share the wealth with him. But to no avail. Rules are rules - even when you are less than 10 years old and you miss by a penny.
7 comments:
I can't believe your dad didn't give in! Well, sort of. I can also see him sticking by his guns. Poor Paul! That would be so disappointing! My dad loved change but we never played the money game. Sure wish we would of!
THE MONEY GAME!!!!
I haven't thought of that game in years!!
But it was OH SO FUN!!
Well, I have thought of the money game a lot since Dad died and have shared the joys of it with lots of my girlfriends. You see, of all the older siblings - when dad first started playing the game - I seemed to win A LOT!!!! The other 3 were always mad at me - wondering how in the world I always could guess the EXACT amount (that was the RULE back then - EXACT). I forgot it was Paul who was a penny over - I was thinking it was Eric when I started reading your blog.
Great Memories. I've never heard of any other kids who had that game they played with their Father. Maybe I should start the tradition with my grandchildren....
Sounds like a great memory to have with your daddy. I was just sitting here after reading this thinking that each one of us probably have that one or two special memories with our dads that maybe no other families had. Sounds like you truly had a special man for a father.
Awwww! How fun & what a treasured memory! :)
Sounds like fun!
My boys would loooove that one!
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