Two Bits

I had a friend named Bev that I use to go visit with once or twice a month. Bev was a rough, tough, opinionated, feisty gal. She had come from a hard background but you could feel the inner strength she had gained surviving through her hard life.  She was one of those women who would go out hunting and fishing but also take care of the gutting and later the butchering on her kitchen table.  She started having small strokes that eventually caused her to be bedridden then pass away several years ago.  As I was sitting in her funeral her husband told a story about her.  Bev was a prankster and loved a good laugh.  For many years she had been pulling a prank on many in our neighborhood and we didn't know it.(that was the biggest part of the fun for her.) Bev decided that she was going to glue a Two Bit on the sidewalk in front of her house and watch people try to get it up.  She knew that a penny would not tempt to many but a Two Bit!!! Wow.  She spent many years laughing as she watched others try to pick that up. She would on occasion go out and even shine it up a little so it sparkled in the sun.  Her children and then her grandchildren watched with her and laughed at the neighbors as they dug at that money. I had to admit I was one of the many who picked at it and rubbed my shoe on it to see if I could get it free. I had forgotten about that story until I walked by her house today and glanced down to see if it was still there. It is gone but the fun memory of Bev's Two Bits will linger in my mind for a long time. (for those of you who do not know what a Two bit is ask an old person...like me.)