Time to Nickel & Dime

Time to Nickel & Dime

Stories from My Youth

Time to Nickel and Dime

Visiting my Greatest Generation Grandparents was always a treat. We were blessed to live only a few hours away from my Dad's parents and they played an impressionable role often coming to visit and treating us to weeks at Grandparents "Camp". So many childhood moments were spent visiting, learning and being enriched with midwestern values.  These experiences and their personal stories created a framework for who I am today I hope to share some of their amazing traditions.  

This past week, after our electric bill showed up, one such memory popped into our heads. My older sister and I recall Grandpa handing us a roll of nickels one visit.  The roll of coins was ours by the end of the stay, if we remembered to turn off the lights as we left the room.  If we were caught leaving the room with the lights still on, however, we would owe Grandpa a nickel. If memory serves me right, my sister had an almost full roll where as was a few cents short by the end of the week (Oops, LOL). This particular memory made in impact on me that to this day I can't leave a room or my house without all the lights being turned off.  So imagine my anxiety when all of a sudden my own children were leaving lights on all over the house. All I could envision is how much money I would have owed my Grandparents.  So, my husband and I figured why not give it a try?  Which child of mine is going to have a whole roll of nickels by the end of the week and which will be short a few cents?  Sorry babies, its time to Nickel and Dime ya' Great Grandpa style.