Isn’t it amazing how the value of the dollar has changed over the years? If you don’t believe it, think what a dollar would buy for you 30, 40, or 50 years ago and look at it now.

Take for instance my 14-year-old granddaughter who comes up to me and asks, “Awma.”

That’s what all my grandchildren call me. They call their grandfather, “Big Daddy.” I dared them to call me “Big Mama.”

“Awma, do you have any ‘loose change’ on you?”

“Loose change?” I asked. “How much is loose change?”

She tried muffling her answer by putting her hand over her mouth, “uhh, $57.”

“$57!” I exclaimed. “That’s a lot of loose change! You must be buying stock in a company!”

“It’s for a youth trip at the church,” she explained.

Well, you know she ended up with it, of course. But I did have to do my little sermon as I was writing the check.

“When I was your age, Hilly,” I said, “I could go to the movies on Saturday afternoon, see a western, a regular movie, a cartoon and a serial, all for 25 cents!”

“I didn’t know movies talked when you were my age, and what is a serial?”

“Funny, Hilly. A serial was like a soap opera only you didn’t need soap back then, they were clean.” I guess that’s why they only cost a quarter.

My times have changed!