From a time when pennies were worth their weight in … copper
Back in the day … when pennies were a treasure to be collected in jars and then counted to spend on penny candy, or at the cinema or on a coveted toy.
As she popped onto the seat beside me, I smiled. Nothing better than an early-morning drive to take my granddaughter to school; nothing better than an early-morning drive with a detour … and she talked my ear off. At one point, though, she was silent—for what was probably mere moments but long enough for me to interject, “A penny for your thoughts.”
“Whaaat?” She looked at me quizzically, smiling. Then, “Gramma” (she’s too old, now, to call me “Grammy”), “what does that mean?”
“It means I would love to hear what you’re thinking about.”
“You mean my thoughts are only worth a penny?”
“No.” I smiled. It means I would pay to hear what you’re thinking … Your thoughts are important to me.”
(She still didn’t quite understand, so I continued.) “Back when there were pennies, they were valued … as thoughts were valued. So, when someone looked pensive—maybe they were daydreaming—someone would say, ‘A penny for your thoughts.’”
“Do you have any pennies, Gramma?”
“I have a whole bag of them. I’ve been collecting them.”
She instantly sat up a little straighter as she sprang back with, “Can I have some?”
“Sure.” I smiled at her, somehow satisfied that she, as well, thought that pennies could be special.
Pennies are a novelty now. They are not valued. They are left lying on sidewalks or in the dirt where people step on them or over them, though perhaps a rare copper coin might spark some curiosity. Copper, at least, until 1982.
Back in the day … when pennies were a treasure to be collected in jars and then counted to spend on penny candy, or at the cinema or on a coveted toy. Back then.
Back in the day when thoughts were as treasured as a jar full of pennies. I like to think they still are. I treasure my granddaughters’ thoughts because they reveal so much about their hopes, their dreams, their fears.
And even further back, more than 400 years ago in a line from Sir Thomas More’s Four Last Things, which was published after his death, there it was, with one slight variation: “A penny for your thought.”
And back in the day when pennies were worth more—a single coin being worth as much as two dollars and fifty cents. Back then.
And here we are … some of us, no doubt, collecting pennies in jars or bags, imagining that one day they may be worth more, once again, and even trying on new versions of the old idiom: a nickel for your thoughts, a dime for your thoughts … but none of them sound the same, or feel the same, so we just keep on collecting until a someone comes along who wants to share in this bit of thoughtful history and perhaps collect a few pennies of their own.
Perhaps this idiom will live on. One thing I know with certainty, though: We can be collectors of thoughts.
A penny for your thoughts, Taya.
