Remember what Momma and Daddy always told you!

Recently I got a phone call from an elderly friend that I met about four years ago.  When we met, we just hit it off like we had known each other all our lives.  She is 68 years old and she has been one of the most spry and sassiest women I have ever met.  Her health is starting to fail her in the last two years, but she still has more get up and go than I do most of the time!  I met her shortly after I opened my first little junk store in Jonesboro and she was a wealth of information to me about antiques and jewelry since she has been in the business for many years.  She will probably never realize how much she taught me and how I wish that I could gain so much more of her knowledge about antiques and jewelry.
When we talked the other night she was giving me the gossip about all the little stores that used to be in the area where mine was and she told me she was in one of them recently when a woman came in the store and was begging for money.  The woman asked the owner for $14.00 and stated that it was all she needed to get to South Carolina and she had to get there for an emergency.  When my friend told me this a red flag went up in my mind.  I can't tell you how many times I have heard this same story or one very similar to it from people who have come up to me while I was out shopping or they have even coming to my door.  I was cutting my grass about two months ago and a woman came up in my yard and gave me the same story.  The money amount is not necessarily the same or the location.  Sometimes I hear they need to get to Tennessee or North Carolina, and the amount is usually under $20.00.   It sometimes varies about the bus ticket.  I've been told that they ran out of gas a few streets over and their wife and kid are sitting in the car and they need money for gas because they have to get out of town for an emergency!  Anyway you get the idea and I know if you live around the Atlanta area you have heard it too.  Back to the woman at the store- The owner asked her if she needed food or clothing and she said no and the owner just turned around and walked off to help a customer.  My friend was upset that the owner just walked away like that and followed the woman out the door.  She said she was a pretty good judge of character and she thought she could tell when a person was telling the truth and she felt like this woman was telling the truth.  She called her over and asked her what was wrong and she just repeated the same story about needing $14.00 for the bus ticket and she had to get there for an emergency.  My friend is a giving person and she thinks that if you help people out when they need it then it will come back to you.  I also feel this way, but I usually know a con story when I hear it.  My friend went to her truck where she keeps her money and she did not have any one dollar bills so she gave the woman a ten and five and told her to take the extra dollar and buy herself a cola or something with it.  The woman thanked her and asked my friend to wait one minute and she went over to the vehicle she came there in and then came back and handed my friend a one dollar bill.  My friend says she didn't want the one dollar change and the woman told her that she didn't understand.  This was a special one dollar bill she was giving back to her.  It was a 1939 Silver certificate dollar bill.  She said that a long time ago a man had given it to her and told her to save it and if she ever got  in trouble and needed money she should give it to someone who helped her out. My friend was so touched by this story that she could not refuse the 1939 Silver certificate dollar bill!  After the woman left she went back in the store and told the store owner that she was wrong for not helping that woman and showed her the Silver certificate.  My friend went home and called her son and told him the touching story and he told her that she did the right thing and she came out on the good end of the deal because that Silver Certificate was worth more than the $14.00 she gave the woman. 
I am a suspicious person by nature and still thought the story was too good to be true and that something just wasn't right.  And much to my disappointment, I was right that something wasn't right.  I looked up the value of the 1939 Silver Certificate.  There were no Silver Certificates of any denomination made in 1939.  I told my friend and she did not believe that the woman would give her a phony bill and make up a story like that.  She still thinks that she has something of value.  I really hope that she thinks it is something of value and will never try to spend it.  I would hate to see her end up with legal troubles for trying to spend funny money.  This beggar woman should be ashamed of herself for taking advantage of people, and as if that is not enough, she is giving them something that could get them in trouble.  I can't help but think of what my Momma and Daddy always told me- "If it sounds too good to be true- IT IS."

A SUNDAY DRIVE

I can remember a time in my life when it was as though I had to be in a hurry to get everywhere.  To go somewhere on a Sunday was to hope that you didn't get behind a Grandpa and Grandma on the road.  You know what I'm talking about.  They crawl along at the speed limit or slower,  and you are pounding on the steering wheel or the dash and hollering 'Get out of the way Grandpa.'  Okay, maybe a few others words got thrown in depending on how much of a hurry I was in.  As I grow older I find myself doing old people things, like taking Sunday drives!  I don't want to get in a hurry taking Sunday drives either.  I want to be going slow enough to look at houses and cows and horses and whatever there is to see.  It might be things I pass by all the time, but I want to take the time to see them.  Fred and I took one of those Sunday drives today to a community close by that I have never seen before.  It is called Serenbe, and it is a beautiful place.  I recommend all my local friends to go and see it on a Sunday drive! 
As most of you know, my grandbabies live in Florida and I really wish they were not so far away, and that I could take a Sunday drive every week to see them. I haven't been to see them since May and my heart aches at times because I miss them.  I often see things on Sunday drives that I know they would enjoy doing.  I want to take Joel and Ethan fishing on Sunday afternoons.  I want to take Kavya shopping on Sunday afternoons.  I want to bake cookies and make homemade ice cream for them on Sunday afternoons.  You get the idea. I am a grandmother and that's what grandmothers do! 
In about 6 years my oldest grandson Joel will be able to get a drivers license.  I need to teach him that if he goes somewhere on a Sunday afternoon and gets behind a Grandpa and Grandma creeping down the road, that he should creep along behind them and just enjoy the scenery.  Hopefully he will. 
Since I can't make that 320 mile drive on this Sunday, I will close this blog and make that drive through 320 miles of telephone line.  I need to at least hear my sweet babies voices.