Sometime in 1999, probably on a Saturday and probably at Walmart, a dad and his six year old daughter purchased a large cardboard foldout map of the United States. On each state was a circle to hold its commemorative quarter.
I asked her, " do you know how old you'll be when this is all filled up?" and told her she would be sixteen. Her eyes lit up and she probably jumped and clapped as though there was something magical about this book. Just fill it up with quarters and you'll be sixteen.
Over the years we placed them in one by one. Some coins held more interest than others, like those for states that held special meaning to her and our family... Summer days in Tennessee and Virginia, her home state of Missouri, Christmas at her grandparents homes in Arkansas and South Carolina. Usually with each quarter came two questions. Dad, have you ever been there? Have I ever been there? As one of the official historians of the first few years of her life, I was a natural one to ask. At that early age a better question might have been, "will I ever go there?" The answer would have been, "probably so".
So much has changed in the filling up of that book. Her oldest sister was a college freshman and is now an attorney with a career in environmental work. Her big brother was a seventh grader and is now out of college and starting his career in St. Louis with an investment firm.
Two days ago we filled up the book. Like magic the six year old has become a sixteen year old and is a high school sophomore and budding artist. The house in St. Louis is now a bigger house in Minneapolis. The young frisky dog is now the old grumpy dog. Her grandfather is gone but her two wonderful, but aging, grandmothers remain. Her father and mother have more grey hair.
50 quarters, 50 conversations, 50 thoughts about places traveled and travels to come, 50 dreams, 50 moments between a dad and daughter, some special some not, all gone.
Time rolls on...........
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