National Coffee Day

Today is National Coffee Day according to a press email David got from a local coffee shop, so treat yourself to your favorite java beverage! Then, bring your coffee in to the room your computer is in and spend some time with The Chronicles!

Don’t you love the cup? It was a birthday gift from David. My hubby knows me SO well! In my quest to be healthier, I’ve switched to decaf at night, but I still always have my java, often in that cup now, next to the computer when I’m scrapping!

The celebration as seen from our living room

It was a fun baseball night last night. I have been predicting a Reds Championship ever since David and I met in 2005. He’s laughed at me until this year. Last night he was yelling, “YAY REDS” right along with me. He laughs at my optimism, but admires my loyalty to my team.
They mentioned on today’s broadcast, when mentioning the sponsors, that it was a good thing Skyline Chili is open 24 hours last night. Mmm…that kinda makes me crave Cincinnati Chili!

Dusty gave a lot of the regular starters today off. The game just started with a beautiful diving catch by Chris Heisey. But now the Astros have scored. Maybe some of the starters will pinch hit later.  But for sure, driving around town in my red Camaro with the Reds license plate will look really cool THIS fall!

Yesterday was a lucky day for me in another way too.

I declared it war on the kitchen day. I was looking at my take-home midterm for my security class. After reading it all through and starting, I was stumped, really stumped by question 2. I don’t have to have the exam turned in until next Monday morning, so I figured I needed to organize in my world to organize my brain. Don’t laugh! It has always worked and I’m a third of the way through the all essay exam already.

One of the things I needed to find a place for was this: 

It’s one of the treasures from Grandma’s house. It’s a coin bank, cloth covered metal a little bigger than a deck of cards made by the Singer Sewing company. It’s old. I don’t know what the value is as an antique, but I’m sure it’s antique-old. There were coins in the bank.

Grandma was a coin collector and she had tons of coins everywhere. I collect pennies, but I have a few other books that Grandma gave me so I started collecting coins with her. She said the coins would all one day be mine. Well, that meant ALL of the coins went with me. I’m saving the pennies and the really old coins and rolling and depositing the rest of the coins in the account I have with my brother to divide later.

When I shook the old coin tin, I figured I needed to pry it open so I could add the coins to the bank stuff. As I was shaking it, one penny fell out. My eyes opened wide, an INDIAN HEAD! I shook it some more and another coin fell out. ANOTHER Indian head!

Having no key that worked, I careful pried it open. For the prying there is only a small dent that hadn’t been there before. I dumped the coins out on the kitchen counter. 33 cents, 8 Indian head pennies and a seated liberty quarter that is a little tarnished, very worn and over 150 years old! The newest coin in the back was dated 1909.

My guess is that the box was originally my Great Grandmother’s. It perhaps had a lost key since she was little and was then lost in the shuffle of things. With the newest penny being 1909, maybe the last it was used was 1910 or 11? My Great Grandmother would have been 4 or 5, maybe collecting the pennies for quite a while. I’m trying to imagine the worth of the coins then. Perhaps the quarter was a birthday gift? I can imagine what a huge deal it would have been to be given a quarter at four years old in 1910. It would have been an incredible treasure and a generous gift.

In 2010 to a 44 year-old, 33 cents and an old metal box is still a great treasure!