Christy Williams

One day I was sitting with my dad in his office and he said apropos of nothing, “You know, the quarter is the best coin.” Well, of course, I knew that! Down through the years they have been so useful for so many things, buying cigarettes out of a machine for a dime and a quarter—buying Cokes for two quarters, paying tolls, giving to people asking for change, and doing the laundry. The prices of all those things have changed, but the quarter is still the coin one needs at the laundromat.

My dad also pointed to a cabinet in his office and said, with much mystery, “Everything is in there.” He said this to everyone in the family, several times.

After he died, we went to the cabinet to find out what was in there. Was it stock certificates, gold bars, stacks of hundred dollar bills? Our curiosity was inflamed when we tried the door and it was locked! Whatever it was, it must be really precious. So, the search started for the key.

We looked in every drawer and cabinet, on every shelf and bookcase, in every pocket, purse, sock and shoe. No key, but hundreds and hundreds of quarters. All we had to do was upend a shoe or a sock and quarters came tumbling out. There were one dollar bills, too, in every book and purse. It was a fun treasure hunt. We made a pile of loot on the living room floor.

Finally, the tiny little key was found and we all went to the cabinet, bursting with anticipation for the big reveal. Was it full of riches? Nope. It was trusts and wills of ancestors, long out of force, and piles of genealogies from both sides of the family. That was the family gold in my father’s eyes, the connections to our history. 

Oh well, we divided up the quarters and dollars and were able to buy a lot of Cokes, pay a lot of tolls and do a lot of laundry with Dad’s stash of quarters.