A Lovely Memory

Last week my aunt called and told me she'd found something amongst some of my grandmother's items that she thought I might like.

After a visit, she gave me two little Grandma and Grandpa banks. I was delighted.

I gave these to my grandparents in 1974, when I was 11 years old. I vividly remember their purchase. My parents were Christmas shopping in downtown Roanoke and we went into the Mr. Peanut Store. The Peanut Store had a Mr. Peanut roaster and a big statue of Mr. Peanut, complete with monocle and top hat.

Aside from peanuts and candies, the store offered a variety of gift items. And on a shelf were the Grandma and Grandpa banks.

I had to have them for my grandparents. I thought they were cute, different and a bit of a joke because they were a retirement fund in pennies.

My grandmother loved them, probably because I gave them to her, and she placed them in a spot of honor on her small secretary. It had a shelf with my favorite books - a selection of great literature (The Silver Skates, Huckleberry Finn, etc.) and her treasure of Little House on the Prairie books. For years the little banks sat separated on the shelf, one on each side of the books.

As the years passed and my grandmother sold her things and her home for her personal care, not to mention a move to Georgia to live with my aunt for a while, I wondered about the little banks. I figured they went out in a yard sale long ago.

I mentioned them to my aunt once in a conversation, asking if she remembered them. I did not expect her to find them, so I was very pleased when she did and then gave them to me.

Grandpa and Grandma now have a place of honor on the shelf in my living room. I daresay they will mean nothing to anyone else in the future, but for me they are a treasure of a memory - a remembrance of myself as a young girl, eager to please her grandparents, and the delight my grandmother took in showcasing something so ordinary.