We found new flip flops and browsed a bit to see if there was anything Emily wanted to buy with her money. Ben and Jenna waited patiently through the jewelery section and looked longingly in the toy isles. To their credit, they had good attitudes the whole time. My oh so grown up Emily recognized this, and feeling benevolent (as she had the good fortune to be the recent birthday girl) gave a quarter to Jenna to ride the train and two quarters to Ben to spend at the machines on the way out. We finalized our purchases, and made our way to the exit. Jenna grinned from ear to ear during her train ride! Ben bought a gumball with his first quarter, and the second quarter bestowed upon him...a rock.
Now, maybe I am just a critical and hardened adult...but a rock? That seems like a sad state of affairs when you are a child anticipating your prize and you are rewarded with a small... well, pebble really. True, it is smooth and colorful, but I'd rather find that treasure in nature. For free. Not that the normal prizes are anything to write home about. They are usually played with for a day or two, forgotten, and then quietly thrown away by mom :) Be that as it may...I would have been sorely disappointed as a child.
Ben, however, took it in stride. "What did ya get, Ben?" I asked him. "A rock," he replied. "A rock???" I questioned. "Yeah. I think it's a special rock 'cause this paper says it's from another country. I think it's rare," he answers, and he pops it in his pocket. He accepts his 'rare' pebble from another country as his prize. He was just happy to have a quarter to spend!
1 comment:
I cannot help but think of the good ol' Charlie Brown Halloween special (aka The Great Pumpkin) where poor Charlie receives not candy, but rocks as he tricks or treats. I can just hear Ben's little voice now: "I got a rock."
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