The Change Jar

Ever since I was a little girl my parents have kept a change jar in their closet!  Don't know why but it is one of the memories I have!  Never any jar in particular just something that could hold the coins!  My Dad worked nights most of the years my brother and I were growing up and when he didn't he still worked until after we got home and finished homework etc.  So it was always a big production when he came home and most who know him know he can make an entrance lol.  But for us we always knew it was him by the double honk of the car horn when he pulled in the carport followed by him tossing his keys on the china cabinet that sat next to the kitchen door and in his best John O voice saying "Honey I'm Hommmmeeeeeee!"  About that time we all would run from wherever we were in the house to greet him.  No joke every night you would swear we were more excited than the night before for Dad to get home.  After the grand entrance was done Dad would shake his hands in his pockets to let us know he had change in them.  Robert and I would run to see who could get it first and be the one to put it in the change jar.  As the years went on Mom and Dad upgraded the jars to bigger and better and even told us one time if we could fill the whole thing we could afford a trip to Disney!  So guess what we did? We filled it and went to Disney lol and we honestly believed that the change in the big jar shaped like a giant Coke bottle paid our way lol!  Also through the years I remember every time someone close to us had a baby Mom would stand in the closet picking through the change jar collecting just the quarters.  She would then roll them in the paper rolls that the bank used and place them in a ziplock bag for the the new Daddy to be with a note telling him....Congrats and that these rolls of quarters were for him to use on the long hospital nights at the vending machine!  Nothing big just something special and useful!!!!  Well still today years later there is a change jar in my parents closet because my Daddy still comes home everyday with his pockets full for my Mom! It has and always will be an unspoken sign of "what's yours is mine" to me!   Seems so crazy to me in today's world lol as I myself will charge 33 cents on my debit card for a large ice water at sonic because I never have any change.  And let me tell you when my Dad sees me doing that it DRIVES HIM CRAZY!  Just another little thing that shows how much things have changed in the way we live and operate in our now electronic world.  But there is something comforting knowing that no matter where I am if my Daddy is there I can always count on him for change!!!!!!  And now their grandkids love filling the change jar in Maw Maw and Pepa's closet!!!  Another tradition I get to see my kids enjoy just as much as I did growing up, a tradition I never knew meant so much till I saw them get just as excited to hear the sound of change jingle!!!!