A Penny for your Thoughts

Arlene Blackman Yolles ♦ November 17, 2025 ♦ Leave a comment

A penny saved is a penny earned.  Not anymore.  The U.S. penny has gone the way of VCR’s and land lines.  Oh, wait a minute, we still have those in our house!

My father, who was born in 1909, used to tell me about going to the movie theater to see a film.  The price was two kids for a nickel.  My dad, from a poor home, would go with 2 cents and hope to find another kid with 3 cents.  Sometimes he was lucky, sometimes he returned home, to try again another time.

Think of all the sayings involving pennies:

A penny for your thoughts!  Now what?  A nickel?  A dime?  My thoughts often aren’t even worth that.  But George Carlin had a comment on that: When someone asks you, a penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?

Benjamin Franklin said:  “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” If that’s true, watch out for the loss of our dollar bills!

Al Capone: “Be careful who you call your friends. I’d rather have four quarters than one hundred pennies.” (Wait a minute, aren’t they both equal to a dollar?)

Here’s one to make you think (or scratch your head): Yogi Berra: “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

And of course, one of the brightest quotes is attributed to one of our (fill in the blank) people: “I’m not a schmuck. Even if the world goes to hell in a handbasket, I won’t lose a penny.” Donald Trump