Dash #191 My Favorite Martian

I recall a time when Grandma Helen had taken Michelle and I to a downtown department store.  She had given us each a dollar to spend on whatever we like.  I fell in love with a plastic bank that resembled a Martian caught in a bag of Money.  It was 2.00.  Michelle wanted a Skipper doll which she said she’d be getting from her other grandmother and she would lend me her dollar in which to purchase my beloved bank (whom I named Michael).

I don’t know where my grandma had gone as we were ready to make our purchase.  The issue of leaving children alone in the department store did not seem to be a huge safety concern as it is today.  I took the bank up to the counter.  The cashier rang me up.  The total came to $2.06.  I was eight or nine and had not considered a tax fee.  Why would I?  I didn’t have six cents to spare! 

A kindly man took a nickel out of his pocket and placed it on the counter.  One cent more to go. The cashier decided to spot me a penny.  I was so excited.

I don’t have an actual picture of Michael and so created this from memory.  I had Michael until two years before Jenna was born.  Our house had been broken into when we lived in Kearns and Michael was stolen.