When Love Rode on a Dime (Dr. James Sutton)

Summertime and warm weather take me back to some of my growing-up years in Abilene, Texas. I was always eager to welcome the west Texas summers. School would be out; I could leave my shoes under the bed. One of my dearest summer memories was watching for the mailman to leave something special in our mailbox.

Two Dimes
It would be a letter from my grandmother in Oklahoma. The letter was always addressed to my mother, but my sister and I were not forgotten. There would be two dimes taped to a card inside Grandma’s letter; one for each of us.

These dimes meant one thing: ice cream! If my sister or I heard the ice cream man on the next street over, we’d rush inside to grab our dimes and stand patiently on the curb until he came down our street. If our tastes weren’t too fancy, a dime would be just enough.

Long-distance Love
It was a given that Grandma loved us; we knew that. But using the US Mail to deliver ice cream in the summer was a creative way to send the message. It was long-distance love, and my sister, our three cousins and I experienced it for many, many years.

But something always puzzled me about those dimes. They were ALWAYS brand new and shiny; uncirculated. Many years later, Mom shared with me the story how those dimes always were always brand new ones.

Near the first of every month, Grandma would ride the city bus downtown with her modest check in hand. This was her one, grand journey every month, so she made it count, generally with a number of stops (starting at the beauty college where she got her hair done). When Grandma finally got to the bank to cash her check, she always requested a roll of dimes. She wanted uncirculated dimes, freshly minted. No old dimes for her five grandkids; they had to be NEW ones.

Too Much?
Today it’s possible for grandparents to video chat with their grandkids in real time. Cell phones and the internet give instant access anywhere and anytime, and gift cards can buy just about anything a grandchild could possibly want.

But that’s just the point, isn’t it? I sometimes wonder if we lavish TOO much on our children and grandchildren.

Can expensive gifts cloud a deeper message? Can love be diminished by extravagance? Might we be better off in a time when the heart of the giver was more valued than the gift?
And love sometimes rode on a dime.###