© Another Day in the Country
Two years ago, we went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We had never been on a cruise before. We loved it. One week was wonderful, but we wanted more.
“We have to do this again,” we said to one another and toward the end, we started a vacation fund.
This vacation fund is money from unexpected things. We started it off with $50 from the prize we won in 2007 for our float at the 4th of July Parade in Ramona.
Since there were three of us making the float and making a fool of ourselves, we’d do some group thing to celebrate when we won a prize. Sometimes we’d take our parade money prize and go out to eat. At one parade, we got $15 so we went to a movie, an afternoon matinee. But this time we still had $50 tucked away in an envelope at the back of my desk drawer.
Where would we go on our next adventure? Tim wanted to go to Australia. My sister dreams of seeing Holland, when the tulips are blooming. I’d like to go to Italy or travel Europe on the canals.
“Whatever,” I said, “We’ll decide where later.”
I was religious in my watch over the vacation fund. When I was paid for writing this column — not much, but it adds up — I cashed the check and put it in the vacation fund. When I sold a painting, I put the money in the vacation fund. All of our parade winnings — we enter several every year to give support to our neighboring towns — went into the vacation fund.
Would you believe, in a few weeks, we’re going on vacation ? So, tonight, I sat down to check out the fund. It had been a year since I last counted it, but it wasn’t the money that drew me to the pile of envelopes. I was most interested in seeing all the places the money came from. How exciting.
I’ve kept the dollars in their original envelopes, if possible, or I’ve written on the outside of another envelope what I’m adding.
On the top of the pile was a card from our aunt in Wichita. It was one of those blank cards, and she’d written a note on the inside. The date was March 2, and it read, “You three have been in my morning and evening prayers. Hope the enclosure will fill some special need and let you know how much I care.”
We agreed to put it in the vacation fund. It gave us hope.
The next envelope I picked up said, “Floats, 3rd Place, $15 from the City of Lincolnville.”
That would have been last fall for Octoberfest. We were doing a simplified version of “Redneck in Ramona” and I’d gone through my kitchen junk drawer looking for funny things to hand out to the crowd. I’d found hot sauce packets, and Tim had scrounged ketchup packages from Sonic to help our cause. It made us laugh just imagining how people would react when we handed these out instead of candy. Redneck for sure!
The next envelope had several notes. The first one said, “Tim won $136 at the Hope Festival.” “$50 for trimming Tony’s toes,” the next notation read. (Tony loved having me trim his toenails and massage his feet. “I feel like a new man,” he’d say and then ceremoniously take out his billfold and pay me $50. “That’s too much,” I told him. “Never,” he’d say, “you’re worth every penny. Think of the gas I save not having to drive to the Senior Center in Marion, and they don’t do foot rubs, either.”)
Tony’s standard payment was $50 — the magic number for the man who helped him get his groceries, for the lady who cleaned his house, for the lawn being mowed. He even insisted on paying me $50 once for mending his pajamas, which I pointed out weren’t worth $10 bucks, but he said, “They’re my favorite and I want them to last a little longer.” Every unexpected dollar went in the vacation fund along with “Sold a painting for $140,” and “chicken cards, $10.” It adds up.
We’re going on vacation in a couple of weeks. We’ll be trading another day in the country for fourteen days on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The vacation fund is going with us. So are the memories of every little occasion that made our moneybag swell with excitement. In a way that means that the Marion County Record, art patrons, Aunt Frieda, Nessa, who loves chicken cards, Tim’s dreams and Tony’s toes are all going, too.