As part of a let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s-be-friendly gesture, I once asked my then-next-door neighbor, James, if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d help me unload some lumber from my pickup.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d bought several pieces of wood to shore up our fence, and as I noticed him sipping Sun Tea on his porch, I sweetened the offer:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And if you help me, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give you a whole dollar.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A whole dollar?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d James asked. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How about if I give you a whole dollar to leave me alone?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how neighbors in Camp Luna get along. By the way, he did help me unload \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a three-minute job \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but refused my magnanimous whole dollar offer.<\/p>\n
Now that was at least 10 years ago, and admittedly, a dollar bought more in those days than it does now. Which leads to the question of what exactly a whole dollar will buy.<\/p>\n
Remember, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a product of the era when we kids often would cluster around one parent or the other, one of us making a gesture in which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d form a circle with our thumb and index finger, a non-verbal plea for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spare change.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Naturally, many of us Railroad barrio denizens were resentful when some classmates from the Silk Stocking District were able to spend a quarter during recess, buying treats from the little candy stand at Immaculate Conception School.<\/p>\n
Our then-homeroom teacher, Sister Mary Mucho Dulce, often asked the money-carrying pupils to share some of the candy with the less-well-heeled. Of course, they assured the nun they already had provided for the rest of us, but the largesse never really materialized.<\/p>\n
My luck at home wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t good either. Often, Dad simply didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a penny on him. Other times, one of my older siblings would have gotten to him sooner and milked the spare change out of Dad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pockets, with Dad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reluctant consent.<\/p>\n
As has been the policy since March 1, 2003, when I wrote the first installment of Work of Art, I expect mass denials among my older siblings. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll claim I was always first in line. But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s move forward, anyway.<\/p>\n
We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask for much, considering the times: a nickel would have lasted us all day. The dollar candy bar we now buy at Walgreens would have cost a nickel.<\/p>\n
I used to wonder why some mornings Dad had change in his pocket and other days he did not. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear now that if he made a purchase downtown, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d probably produced a few coins and gotten some in exchange. Those were the realities in an age when a dollar an hour was a fair wage on which people raised families.<\/p>\n
Today, that policy is inconceivable. Coins, unless you have a bunch of them, are virtually worthless, and more and more frequently, we see coins larger than pennies in the checkout-counter tray that used to have only pennies.<\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t carry coins anymore, choosing to put them into a piggy bank and using currency instead. Being coinless has another advantage, that of being truthful when I explain to a panhandler downtown that I have no \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spare change\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for him. Of course, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m too much of a softie to take that tack; those who approach me at storefronts usually get a bit of the folding stuff.<\/p>\n
The idea of what money\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth today really struck me during the July Fiestas, when I saw a young mother grease her son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s palm with money. I was taking photos at the time and zoomed in on the area, and I got to watch the scene almost as if in slow motion.<\/p>\n
The child wanted some treats at the Plaza Park. First, the young mother pulled out a five-dollar bill, but the kid, jiggling his hand in the way people do when they want to wrest the full amount of peanuts out of a vending machine, waited for her to place yet another bill.<\/p>\n
This scene got repeated until the mom pulled the money back into her hands and replaced it with not one but two twenties.<\/p>\n
That total is much more than a whole dollar of yesteryear, but the buying power probably isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lot different.<\/p>\n
So what can we buy with a whole dollar? A soft drink? About the only place where one is available for under a dollar is Traveler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cafe.<\/p>\n
Several places charge close to two dollars for a soft drink, iced tea or even coffee. But the fact that tea and coffee often come with refills brings the price down a smidgen. Yet that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still quite a stretch from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dime for a cup of coffee\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mendicants used to ask for.<\/p>\n
Not any kind of economist, I nevertheless wonder by what percentage money has inflated since I was a child. Ten times, perhaps? When the Optic increased its rack price to 50 cents several years ago, that seemed a huge increase. Now, does anyone notice, or complain?<\/p>\n
Is it possible to buy a burger with the works for less than five dolars? Can one enjoy a full meal anywhere in town for less than 10 dollars?<\/p>\n
Lowe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Supermarket has an aisle dedicated to treats under a dllar.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, one can probably buy a roll of Life-Savers or a pack of gum and get change from a dollar; a small bag of chips might yield a bit of change; and certain items on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153value menu\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of fast-food places cost close to a dollar.<\/p>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come a long way since the days when a whole dollar would light up a kid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes. Inflation certainly isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to abate in our future, and a Coke some day may sell for five bucks.<\/p>\n
It seems apparent that the next time I have lumber to unload and my burly neighbor sits sipping tea, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need to up the offer to two whole dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As part of a let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s-be-friendly gesture, I once asked my then-next-door neighbor, James, if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d help me unload some lumber from my pickup. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d bought several pieces of wood to shore up our fence, and as I noticed him sipping Sun Tea on his porch, I sweetened the offer: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And if you help me, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=997"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1000,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions\/1000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}