I think twice before I pick up a nickel

           When I was a kid, picking up a penny was not a problem. Back then it worth the effort to bend down because I could do a lot with a penny. I could buy a piece of bubble gum or a piece of hard candy, and if I had five of those little copper beauties I could buy a small Coke or a Snickers bar. If I had nine cents in my pocket and saw a penny lying on the ground, I’d have it between my fingers in a heartbeat, because that penny was the difference between wishing I had an ice cream cone and actually having one — vanilla fudge, thank you.

           As time went on, the cost/benefit ratio of bending down to pick up a penny became increasingly unfavorable. At a certain point in history, a single penny could no longer buy anything, so there no longer seemed to be much point in picking one up. But that doesn’t mean I stopped picking up pennies. Old habits die hard, and unless a truck was bearing down on that penny I’d make the effort — for old times’ sake, if for no other reason. I was a slave to tradition.

           By a certain age, however, common sense overruled nostalgia, and if I saw a penny lying on the ground I’d leave it. It’s one thing to be able to bend over. It’s another to be able to straighten up again. After that, I’d only risk picking up a penny if my total at the checkout was $12.01 and I needed one to avoid getting 99 cents in loose change. Before I handed over a twenty I’d look around to see if there were any stray pennies waiting to be picked up. There were times when I’d even find one.

           Eventually I quit doing that too, until the day I stared down at a heads-up penny on the ground by the ATM machine. I’d been seeing the same penny for over a week, and because I felt bad for that forlorn penny, I decided to pick it up. Besides, it was heads up, and who can’t use a little extra good luck? And it wasn’t long before my kindness to that lonely penny was rewarded — that evening, when I checked the lottery numbers, I found that I’d won $253 on a Cash 5 ticket. Well hot dog! Unfortunately, it only worked once.

           These days not only do I leave pennies on the ground, I think twice about picking up a nickel — and when I mentioned that to my friend Bruce in Ingles, he said I ought to write a column about it. Next time I saw him I told him I took his advice, and he said, “You’re kidding.” Hey — does it look like I’m kidding?