A Penny

I collect pennies and some other old coins. Now I’m not a numismatist by any stretch of the imagination. I just collect old stuff that interests me. Today I made a find, a 1941 wheat penny That’s pretty much what I limit my collecting to, wheat pennies and coins from the war years. For me it’s a real slice of history. What kind of past do they have, where have they been, who has used them, it takes me back.

My dad was in the Army Air Corp during the Second World War. Most of my friends fathers had served during those years, a lot of us grew up hearing war stories and Army stories. One of the great adventures for us as kids was going to the Army/Navy surplus stores. There was one just across the border in Hammond Indiana, and there were a couple of great ones right in Downtown Chicago.

Trips to Downtown were an adventure. We’d walk or ride our bike to the IC (Illinois Central) station in Homewood and take the train to the end of the line, which at that time was the Prudential Building, once the tallest building (at 41 stories) in Chicago.

An adventure downtown always included a few necessary stops for us. Going to the Sun Times Building to see my dad at work, heading to Marina Towers to watch the DJ’s at WCFL, hitting a couple of record stores, lunch at an old deli in the Loop, right under the el train as it thundered over us,  deafening and shaking us as we feasted on sumptuous Rueben sandwiches, cole slaw and fry’s. And of courses the goal of the trip, hitting the surplus stores.

They were like toy stores for us. Being in Boy Scouts we needed all kinds of cool camping supplies as well as emergency equipment, living up to the Boy Scout Motto of “always be prepared.” Which, by the way still serves me well today, thank you Baden Powell!

Shelves and racks of jackets, tents, all types of bags, pistol belts, mess kits, compasses, c rations, zippo lighters, gloves, hats, helmets, shovels, bayonets, scabbards, cartridge belts, patches and pins, it was a 12 year old’s treasure trove! And all very useful for those excursions into the wild.

What made it even better was it was affordable on a budget, money derived from cutting lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, working at the hobby shop. Try to buy that stuff today and it costs a small fortune, collectible and vintage being the words to watch for.

Every once in a while I take my jar of old pennies and dump them on the desk, sort through them, wonder about them. Write about them a little bit.