Nickels for Dimes
By Linda Goodma
© Linda Goodman 2007
If you are familiar with my stories, you have already met Brother Lee. I am sad to say that Lee left this world on September 20, 2019. Alzheimer's Disease showed him no mercy. Lee is a big part of my story Nickels for Dimes. I am posting it in his honor. You can watch the video of this story on my website on the "Hear Linda Tell tab."
In August
1961, on an oppressively hot and humid day (made even more oppressive by my
having just played four innings of kickball), my nine-year old body lay
stretched across the bed in the room that I shared with my five-year old sister
Evelyn. I was trying to get cool. But there was no air conditioning, and the
fan just circulated hot air.
In my hand
I held a nickel, my allowance for the week.
Believe it or not, in those days a nickel would buy an eight ounce
fountain Coca Cola with chipped ice or a one-scoop ice cream cone. What it would not buy was both. Therein lay my problem. I could not decide which one I wanted. Would it be the cold energy of the Coca Cola,
or the cool comfort of the ice cream?
I was just
about to let a flip of my nickel make the decision for me, when I noticed my
baby sister Evelyn’s money jar on her side of our dresser. It was really just a pickle jar that Momma
had washed out. Daddy cut a slit in the
lid so that she could use it as a bank. That bank was filled almost to the top
with nickels, dimes, and quarters.
Unlike my brothers and me, who spent our nickels as soon as we got them,
Evelyn put all of her nickels in that bank.
And when relatives came to visit, they would put dimes and quarters in
there because she was so cute.
As I stared
at that money jar, I thought to myself, if
I take just one nickel from that jar, Evelyn will never know. Heck, I wouldn’t even know if there was a
nickel missing from that jar, and I was the smartest person I knew!
If I took a
nickel from that jar, however, that would be stealing, and the Bible
said that stealing is a sin.
Of course,
the Bible
also said, “Thou shalt not store up treasures on this earth,” and Evelyn had
quite a treasure stored up in that jar.
That meant she was sinning, too.
I figured her sin cancelled mine out.
And the Bible
said over and over again that we should always help those in need. There I was in dire need of a Coca Cola and
an ice cream cone, and my baby sister had not even offered to help me out. That meant she had two sins to my one, and I
figured that entitled me to a free one.
I got off
the bed and walked over to the dresser, but just as I started to reach for that
jar, my baby sister Evelyn walked into the room!
“Hi,
Sissy!” she greeted me.
“Hi,
Ev…Evelyn,” I stammered. “I was just
admiring your money jar. Why, it’s almost full!”
“I know,”
she squealed. “I can’t wait for it to
get all the way full. Then I can start a
new one.”
Suddenly, I
was possessed by an idea.
“You know,
Evelyn, I can help you with that. See
this nickel I have here? It’s about
twice the size of a dime. If you give me
a dime out of your jar, I’ll give you this nickel and your jar will be that
much fuller!”
“Really?”
she innocently asked. “You would do that
for me?"
I nodded my
head and said, “Uh huh.”
She walked
over to the dresser, opened the jar and took out a dime. And as we traded my
nickel for her dime, she put arms around me in a big hug and said, “Oh,
Sissy! You’re the best sissy in the
whole wide world!”
Ten minutes
later, I was sitting at the counter of the Highway Pharmacy, ordering myself a
vanilla ice cream cone and a fountain Coca Cola with chipped ice. And as I walked home licking that ice cream
and sipping that Coke, I thought to myself, boy
am I smart! What other nine-year-old
would even think of trading nickels for dimes?
Soon I
passed the ball field, where my brother Lee (who claimed to be in training to
be a major league pitcher) was playing catch with his friend Roy Allen. I decided to mess with him.
“Hey, Lee!”
I hollered. “Your glove is on the wrong
hand!”
That
startled him and he dropped the ball. “Get outta here, goon face! You’re
messin’ with my concentration!” he sneered.
I just
laughed and kept on licking that ice cream and sipping that Coke.
The next
morning our neighbor, Mrs. Oliver, asked me to go to the little store around
the corner and get some bread and milk for her, because she didn’t want to
leave her new baby. I did as she asked,
and she rewarded me with a shiny new nickel.
Immediately
I went to find my baby sister Evelyn, who was in the back yard under a tree,
having a tea party with her imaginary friends.
“Look,
Evelyn,” I purred, “I have another nickel.
Want to trade for another dime?”
She ran
into the house, lickety split, and came back with a dime. And as we traded my
nickel for her dime, she put arms around me in a big hug and said, “Oh,
Sissy! You’re the best sissy in the
whole wide world!”
Ten minutes
later, I was sitting at the counter of the Highway Pharmacy, ordering myself a
chocolate ice cream cone and a fountain Coca Cola with chipped ice. And as I
walked home licking that ice cream and sipping that Coke, I thought to myself, I must be pretty close to being a
genius. If I keep this up, I’ll be a
millionaire by the time I’m ten!
About that
time I passed the ball field where, once again, my brother Lee and his friend
Roy Allen were playing catch.
“Hey, Lee!”
I hollered, “Where’s that stick?”
Lee turned
with his hands on his hips to look at me.
“What stick?” he questioned.
“That ugly
stick you got beat with!” I laughed spitefully.
He just
shrugged.
“You got no room to talk,” he
said.
“You’re so skinny, if you turn
sideways and stick out your tongue, you look like a zipper.”
That
hurt! I had been sensitive about my
weight ever since I had passed out in school, and the principal had sent me
home with a note saying that I could not return until I had seen a doctor. He thought I was starving, the note said.
But I was
not about to let Lee know that he had gotten to me. I got right in his face and starting taunting
him, “COKE AND ICE CREAM! COKE AND ICE CREAM! COKE AND ICE CREAM!”
Then with a
big gulp, I swallowed the rest of my coke, and with a gigantic bite, I devoured
the rest of that ice cream.
Then I
started to run, but I tripped over my shoe lace, which made Lee and Roy Allen
start laughing. I wasn’t laughing, but I
wasn’t crying either, because there, right on the ground in front of my face
was ANOTHER NICKEL! I scooped it up and
ran home as fast as I could
Of course,
the first thing I did was to go looking for my baby sister Evelyn. I found her in our bedroom, changing the
diaper on her Betsy Wetsy doll.
“Look,
Evelyn!” I announced. “I have another nickel! Want to trade for another dime?”
She
couldn’t get to her money jar quickly enough.
And as we traded my nickel for her dime, she put arms around me in a big
hug and said, “Oh, Sissy! You’re the
best sissy in the whole wide world!”
The next
afternoon, I was sitting at the lunch counter of the Highway Pharmacy, ordering
myself a vanilla ice cream cone (there were only two flavors in those days) and
a fountain Coca Cola with chipped ice.
And as I walked home licking that ice cream and sipping that Coke, I
thought to myself, “God is behind me on
this! He wants me to trade nickels for
dimes! After all, nickels are appearing
miraculously everywhere!”
As I
approached the ball field, I noticed that Lee and Roy Allen were not playing
catch this time. They were sitting on
the curb. And as I approached, Lee stood
up and walked over to meet me.
“You know,
Sis,” he began, “I’ve just been sittin’ here, wonderin’ about somethin’. For three days now I’ve been seeing you walk
past here with an ice cream cone in one hand and a Coca Cola in the other. And what I want to know is, how can you get
ice cream AND Coca Cola three days in a row, when you get a nickel a week for
allowance, just like me?”
“Lee,” I
retorted, “you might be five years older than me, but I’m WAY smarter than
you.”
“You’re not
as smart as you think you are,” he informed me, “if you think that I’m gonna
believe that you all that ice cream and all that Coca Cola on just a nickel as
week allowance.”
I
bristled. “I got my ways.”
“I know
that,” he nonchalantly replied. “And I know exactly what your ways are,
too. See, the way I have it figgered,
Mr. Gilliam, the man behind the lunch counter at the Highway Pharmacy, feels
real sorry for you because you’re so ugly.
So he gives you ice cream and Coca Cola for free.”
“That not
true!” I insisted. “I paid for all my ice cream and Coca Cola!”
Ignoring my
agitation, Lee continued, “I figger that Mr. Gilliam gives you that ice cream and Coca Cola as soon as you walk
in the door, ‘cause he wants to get you of his store quick, before you scare
the other customers away.”
Now I was
really mad. “That’s not true! I paid for every bit of ice cream and Coca
Cola I got!”
He didn’t
believe me.
“Ain’t no way you could have
bought all that ice cream and all that Coca Cola when you’re only gettin’ a
nickel a week.”
“That’s
what you think!” I exploded. “I’ve been
trading our baby sister Evelyn, nickels for di…..” suddenly I realized what I
was telling him. “…uh oh… and…and you
could, too, if you wanted,” I whined.
“I can’t
believe it!” Lee exclaimed. “I can’t
believe you’ve been cheatin’ our baby sister! I would never do that for any
amount of money!
“I named a
trade,” I reasoned frantically. “She
agreed to it. You can’t name that
cheatin’”
“It’s
cheatin’, all right,” he sneered. “And
I’m gonna make sure that Momma knows about it, too!”
“If you
tell on me, I’ll tell on you!” I threatened.
He was
indignant. “What are you gonna tell on
me?”
I pointed
at Roy Allen. “I’m gonna tell that
you’ve been makin’ fun of me in front of you friend yonder!”
Lee shook
his head. “I don’t care what you tell. I
ain’t lettin’ you cheat my baby sister no more.”
As I walked
home after that confrontation, I savored every last lick of that ice cream and
every last sip of that Coke. I knew it
would be a long time before I got either one again.
Sure
enough, as soon as Lee got home, he pulled Momma aside and whispered in her
ear. Her eyes widened and her nostrils
flared as she turned towards me.
“Linda!” she ordered, “I want you to go to your room and think about
what you’ve done!
I went to
my room, but I did not think about what I had done. I was too busy thinking about what my momma
was going to do.
She let me
stew for a couple of hours. Then she
came into my bedroom. Hands on her hips,
she cocked her head and said, “Linda, you sure are a smart young’un. Wonder how it is that a woman like me, with
just a sixth grade education, mind you, gave birth to a young’un smart as you?”
I smiled
sweetly. “God blessed you, Momma.”
“He surely
did,” she responded. “He blessed me with
a maid for the rest of the summer.”
My baby
sister got my nickel allowance for the next three weeks. They were just enough to fill her jar so that
she could start a new one.
I spent the last 3 weeks of summer
vacation dusting, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing, washing, and polishing. Momma
passed that time lying on the devinette, eating bonbons and watching her
stories. Every once in a while, she
would look at me, point, and say, “You missed a spot.
It wasn’t
too hard a punishment. I could take it.
What I couldn’t take was my baby sister Evelyn’s reaction. She came up to me and said, almost
apologetically, “Momma won’t let me trade you nickels for dimes anymore,
Sissy.” Then she whispered in my ear,
“She didn’t say anything about quarters, though.
I couldn’t
help myself. I put my arms around her
and gave her a big hug, and with tears in my eyes, I declared, “Oh, Sissy,
you’re the best sissy in the whole wide world!”
