1951 chevy deluxe
my better half says i'm a lucky person. well, he says he's the lucky one, but as far as randomly finding money, i'm that person.
there's nothing to finding spare change. stupid people toss pennies and dimes for whatever reason. i have no idea if that's true. mostly its just the young morons that don't think coins are worth anything or worth carrying, and toss them at each other, at passing cars, or just drop them. i pick them up and throw them in my bear bank. individually, they're not much, but get enough, thar be dollars for the taking.
i only pick them up if they're heads up. that's just a stupid superstition, but its what i do. some people think spirits put coins in their path. messages from beyond, from dead relatives.
mostly, i think my better half refers to the times he's seen me find presidents. the flicker of paper from the corner of my eye, he equates it to how i sometimes find random car shows when we're on a vacation or road trip.
there was the time near uci years ago, grabbing lunch at ino, and picking up about forty, or was it sixty bucks, just absently blowing across the lot. i was so sure there was a string and a camera involved, that they'd be snatched away by some college student as i bent to pick them up. but no. they were mine now, and i bought him lunch with it.
there are other instances he's seen me randomly find cash, but i can't remember specifics. i'm sure he remembers; he remembers everything.
farther back, i remember finding a small purse full of dollars and change at a gemco...does anyone even remember gemco? must have been about twenty bucks in that one, which is a lot when you're in sixth grade.
i guess it was my turn to give back in san fernando.
i remember i had pulled some cash from my purse and moved it to the upper pocked of my camera bag, with the intention of buying some cold water when i got back up to the snack bar. at some point, i pulled my white balance thingy out of my bag, from that same pocket, then putting it back.
not long after, a woman approached with a girl in tow, and asked if i'd dropped any money, five dollars maybe? maybe out of my pocket? since i hadn't been carrying any money in my pocket and wasn't thinking about the cash in the bag, i said no. she said you sure? didn't think so, so i told her, finders keepers, and went on shooting.
as i listened to the girl asking if she could get ice cream, it suddenly hit me what probably happened, and it was more than just five bucks, because i know it had been wrapped up with some singles. pretty sure i had pulled the jackson from the bundle before i'd moved it to the pocket.
i guess i could have gone back after it, she'd asked after all. i thank her for her honesty. if only there were more people like that, right? overall, it wasn't that much, and i still had some money to get water, so just smiled and kept on keeping on. good things come to good people.
this chevy was an interesting shade of turquoise green. it was shiny and the light was hitting it just so.