Texts with my sister this morning:
Lisa: Do you remember these cards that we got that we weren’t allowed to use because we were supposed to save them? Well, I saved them. So at what point can I spend this $1.90? And what to spend it on at this point? A single meximelt at Taco Bell? Less than a half gallon of gas? “Yes, sir, I’d like to buy $1.90 of gas in loose change that I’ve been carrying around since 1981.”
The snowman one? Not even signed.
me: I remember having one with a kitty on it that had 20 dimes. I think I did actually spend it on gas in the 90s.
Lisa: Smart. Back when that bought more than 14 drops of gas. But actually read the snowman text. It’s oddly threatening. About what I’d expect from a hostile snow person.
me: Frosty: I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. I’M INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.
Lisa: Yes, but it’s warm here so I think he’s the puddle I just stepped in and thought was dog pee. Way to commit, Frosty.
Me: THIS IS A CRIME SCENE, MA’AM. STEP OUT OF THE CORPSE.
Lisa: But here’s the $1.90 that he left you for your trouble. He’s not a monster. Only misunderstood. Like Frankenstien.
me: A buck 90 in dimes that might be soaked in dog urine or snowman remains. MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Lisa: ‘Tis the season.
me: I just asked Victor if he ever got coin cards when he was a kid and he was like, “I’ve never even seen those before. What kind of shitty-ass gift is ‘dimes on paper’?
Lisa: My husband said he got them but the were “collector’s coins”. He’s bougie.
me: Victor just said he got cards with slots for dollars. Fuckin’ Daddy Warbucks over here.
This is all going on the blog.
Lisa: I might know where you can get $1.90 to pay the hosting service.
me: IT’S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.
Not a very impressive one, but still.
Lisa: You take what YOU get and YOU like it.
Sorry. Hostile snowman text is contagious.
So your entire family is hilarious?
My mother in law sends my kids these cards for Easter, but we have to save them and send them back to her so she can use them next year.
I remember coin cards, because I’m old as dirt. Never saved them though, that’s crazy.
I love Victor. His responses to you are the only thing keeping me going these days. MORE VICTOR!!!
Your snowman card’s prose reminded me of my daughter, age nine, singing by the fire, “He sees you when you’re sleeping / he knows when you’re awake / he sounds just like a stalker / if you listen to the song.”
I have never received coin cards or any cards with dollar slots on them. Thanks, Mom. I could have had $1.90 to put gas in my car,
My vote: buy a slurpee at 7-11.
This is probably the reason for the national coin shortage! Way to go, snowman!
I was going through old cards from my grandparents and found a dollar I never spent. I couldn’t bring myself to spend it, though, so I put it somewhere safe. Now, if I could just remember where that is.
Yes! I got a lot of these! But sadly I didn’t save them. My parents are the opposite of hoarders, so I’m sure those cards were gone as soon as I opened them. Seriously, I have nothing from my past. I doubt they even kept my birth certificate, and I’m an only child. 🤣
I still have two of the kitty ones that my grandmother gave me when I was little. Coins still in them. Apparently, I was not allowed to spend them either. I’ll probably die with them and then my daughter will have to figure out what to do with all those dimes.
I love the texts between Lisa and you. They remind me of the text conversations between my brother and myself. Everyone needs at least one person in their life who thinks the same, twisted way you do, has the same frame of reference, and GETS you.
I sure do remember those!
I actually have two of the kitties with dimes! They came from my husband’s grandma, we’re saving them for our kid. They’ve been taped up because his grandma and mom would take out the coins and replace them later. #GrowingUpPoor
I still have a birthday coin card with like $2.75 in quarters and a half dollar(fancyyyy) from the 90s. Idk why I can’t take it out of the card. It’s a part of me😂😂. My son will have a lovely coin inheritance.
I had received some of those cards. My parents put them in a safe place. Well, in 2008 a hurricane hit and destroyed my childhood home. I asked my mom two nights ago where all those dollar tablets were. She said she did not know. I told her where she and my father kept them. She said that they were gone with the storm. You mean to tell me that the water and such strong waves that they opened the cabinets in the hallway? I know that the water was 7 ft. high in house which was already 4 ft. off the ground. But, of all the people I knew of that stayed in the homes not one of them mentioned 2 ft. waves in their homes. So, I guess she was just thinking of a good way to tell that all that money is history and she has not idea where they are. My dad died in October. I did not think to ask him before he passed. I could ask him when I see him in heaven , but what good would that do?
I never got a coin card, but I don’t remember getting dollars, either. If I had gotten them as a kid, they would have been spent on comic books and candy, immediately.
The old holiday cards are really weird, though. If you ever go to a yard/rummage/garage sale sometimes you can find people selling old greeting cards with envelopes, and I like to look at them because they are so dated and weird and it makes you realize how different things were back then.
I was just reminiscing with my sibling about the old days when we were kids on the phone. It’s funny how as you get close to the holidays you tend to share memories with siblings.
My great aunt who worked in a bank in St. Louis used to bring us Lifesaver rolls complete with the little pull string waxed foil end bit, only it was filled with nickles! It was pretty damn cool.
I remember those, often received with a holiday box of life savers.
I remember getting cards with coins that were taped to the inside of the cards. I guess we really were poor. I didn’t just imagine it.
I didn’t get any cool cards MEANT for that with slots and shit. Now I feel cheated. 😆
My husband’s dad keeps giving my husband $2 bills to give our son. The kid is 13 and 1) does not care about vaguely novel forms of currency and 2) knows where the bank is and could go get one any time he felt the need. But no, they’re slowly accumulating on my husband’s closet shelf because apparently being a grandparent disconnects people from common sense and reality.
I remember those, often received with a holiday box of life savers
My Mom died when I was 15 and I helped go through her things. We found a “Congrats on your baby Dee’s birth..” letter from her college. It had a penny taped on to start my “college” fund. I actually did put that penny (and various summer jobs, gifts, etc. money) into my savings account and used it for probably 1 second of a course. 😉
I remember coin cards ranging from pennies to quarters and the occasional dollar card and yes, they were to be saved. I’m sure that there were some that went with my parents’ estate sale. (I have no idea what all was in the garage.)
It’s weird. I still occasionally get money inside a card, and have trouble actually spending it. There are a couple of cards with money enclosed sitting in my nightstand as I type this response. I guess they’re like the twenty I keep in my glove compartment for emergency gas.
We had to compete for a single dime that was buried somewhere in an Angel Food Cake. I have three sisters. It was mayhem. I tried it with my kids and they were outraged. “We will not do battle for less than $100”.
My great-aunt would give me a birthday card with a dime for each year of my life. They weren’t special cards; she would just scotch tape a roll of dimes inside the card.
If it’s any consolation, I had a distant aunt who gave me a leather-bound trifold book for collecting US nickels with a space for every nickel ever minted, who faithfully sent me two nickels every December, once for Christmas and one for my birthday until the year she died.
I paid for gas in coins too! I had a Neon in 1999 and I could fill it up from empty for under $10. Ahhh, the good old days.
Someone mentioned the life savers books. I got nostalgic a couple of Christmases ago and bought them for my parents and my brother’s family. I thought they’d love it. They just looked at me like I had two heads and then politely put them in their stacks of presents. Lesson learned! No more nostalgic presents for THEM! *shrug*
Oh my, I recognize the cash register one! I had that one!
Oy yes I do recall those. I’d say “at least you have coins touched by your dear…” but oh dear they did not even sign it so we’ll just never know, will we?
Thank you, this made me laugh out loud. Now the cats are looking at me for disturbing their naps.
I don’t remember any coin cards, but I do remember the holiday life saver boxes. They opened like a book. Wow, I had forgotten about those!
OMG, I am now dead. I needed that laugh, thanks! I never received coin cards, nor did I buy any for my kids. Santa did, however, buy silver ingots for my son, every Giftmas, until the coin shop near our house moved.
Those are the fancy cards. My grandma would straight up tape the quarters to the card. lol Back in the days when you could get a dilly bar for 25 or 30cents.
I have some of those in my baby book – most of the coins are gone – I think I kept one in the slot just to remember…
My jaws are aching from laughing so hard. Both at your post and at all the comments. This was life back in the day. In the 70’s I would get upwards of $5 and it would buy an LP! I think I got John Denver’s Greatest Hits with my birthday chump change one year.
My Grandmother would give all of the grandkids a silver dollar every Christmas. There were 5 just in my bit of the family. She must have saved all year. My Dad always said he would hold onto them for us…He passed 7 years ago-no silver dollars in site….5×21 missing. We probably needed things….like food. 🙂
This is awesome! I remember feeling guilty about spending by special birthday two-dollar bills to get into frat parties.
I’ve never heard of coin Christmas cards, interesting. It’s hilarious that your sister kept the cards *and* never spent the coins!
I love that your sister is just as twisted as you are! ❤️
Please, please, PLEASE spend those coins. Your children are NOT going to pleased about all the hours they’re going to waste researching for you how much that stoopid dollar bill with the star is worth today (hint: one dollar). Not that I’d know anything about that…. However, I’m storing all sorts of ideas on how to drive my own children crazy a few decades from now.
I vaguely remember these. But I also got into the liquor cabinet at a young age. Family was weird.
Be sure and check those dimes, they might be old Mercury dimes, which are solid silver and you could DOUBLE that $1.90!! 🤣
One year my sister said all she wanted for Christmas was cold hard cash, so I took a jar and put some water in the bottom and froze it, then put in a couple of coins, another layer of water and back in the freezer and so forth. She loved it, but then spend the money.
My mom started collecting the state quarters for all the grandkids, but ran out of steam at some point. So we have a big book with an incomplete collection that I’m sure my kid will use for snack money at some point. I have a couple books full of pennies that my dad saved.
My grandmother gave the only boy money and all the girls handkerchiefs.
I remember getting those as a kid and my kids getting those. We got to spend them. I even sent them to my grandkids. I can’t remember if they were quarters or dollars as it’s been a few years. My adult daughter and I just saw the lifesaver books at the grocery store yesterday. We got those as kids from relatives even though she doesn’t really remember it.
{*hugs*}
Sandy/Aset/Wynterose
I feel like this was probably a thing, the collecting the commemorative state quarters became more of a thing at our house. Here’s a giant book full of quarters you CANNOT spend. https://possumscatsthingsgnawingatme.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/meat-enthusiast/
When My sisters and I got those cards as little kids we went straight to the corner candy store or for the big money cards with quarters to the ice cream parlor.
When my daughter was born 32 years ago our obnoxious loud mouth neighbor gave me 5 rolls of pennies with the admonishment to never let her spend them because the government was going to stop making pennies and they would be worth a fortune someday. Every couple of years she’ll take them out of my top dresser drawer and ask me how much I think they’re worth.
All you need is a tube sock. Put a bunch of coins in the toe and tie it shut. Quarters work best but we’re not all that rich. Then you whirl that sock around like a helicopter, or wax-on, wax-off, and you have a weapon that would behead stalker Frosty. You can take the girl out of the trailer park…
Spending 2 Dollars on hosting IS a christmas miracel!
OMG this is so hilarious. You and your wonderful bookstore are literally the reason i’m like 63/37 on moving to San Antonio…Jus sayin…
Are we doing the James Garfueld Miracle this year? I am so ready to shop
We all know that Jenny (and her family) are treasures to the world, but can I also just say how amazingly funny, warm, and wonderful all of you the entire bloggess tribe is??? 😊 ❤️ Happy holidays you totally precious pocket people!
I love everyone’s stories! I didn’t get the adorable coin cards unfortunately, but I received some random Kennedy heads once and it was drilled into me how “valuable” those are and to never part ways with those ever…Needless to say those are collecting dust somewhere….
There was always a hoarder tone of fearful frugality in our family that applied to things. My family’s attitude toward money and things was always of the mindset of “you never ever know when you might need something!!!” Of course that day never came. 😂
Thankfully as an adult I have respect for my things and appreciation, but when that usefulness and or joyfulness for those things is gone I let that shit goooooooooooooo! Bye bye!!!
I wonder if the vintage cards are worth more than the coins now?
Not quite the same, but we discovered a partially-filled ‘states’ quarters’ portfolio when we moved. If full, it would have been worth $12.50 – interest in the project apparently waned after around 18 states though.