Clothes Lines and Silver Dollars

When I was a kid, our folks would ship me and my sister off to our grandparents' for a week or two every summer. The days were full of sunshine, bare feet, aunts, uncles and cousins, fried foods, coke floats, Vacation Bible School, and sitting on the piano bench by Grandmom as she played the hymns at church.

Sometimes, the phone in the house would ring and we'd run to answer it. Grandmom and Grand Dad were on a party line and they would, to my bewilderment, tell us the phone wasn't for us.

Other times, the phone was ringing for Grandmom and it was someone inquiring if the grandkids were visiting. Know how they knew? Our shorts and t-shirts were hanging on the clothes line in the backyard for all to see!

Before the clothes ended up on the line, Grandmom would call for me to come help her in the shed. The shed is where the washing machine was, on a dirt floor, as I recall. I'd help her get the clothes out of the washing machine and without fail, Grand Dad would have forgotten to empty his pants' pockets. There, in the tub of the washer would be a US Silver Dollar Coin.

The coin always felt so big and heavy in my hand. Grandmom would tell me that if Grand Dad couldn't empty his pockets, well, then, I'd just get to keep the silver coin. I loved helping "catch" my Grand Dad! To this day, I have the silver dollars that Grand Dad "forgot" each time we visited.

When the sun shines and the wind moves just right, I remember those barefoot summers with clothes lines and silver dollars.

Happy Tuesday!
~Mindy