I'm Sure There's a Centsible Explanation

Doo doo doo doo! Doo doo doo doo! No, that's NOT something Hick has had his hands in before not-washing them to make a sandwich. It's the creepy Twilight Zone ditty, due to what I heard when finding my first penny of the week at the Backroads Casey's.

On MONDAY, June 4th. Just inside the door, I spied this penny.

It was obviously waiting just for me! On the light-colored tile instead of the penny-colored tile. Near the middle, not on a crack. And when I bent over for its close-up...

Ol' Abe was lookin' right at me! Not all cattywompus. And FACE UP! A 1979 edition. When I started taking my first picture, the clerk was in the back room. The "office." I know that, because a long time ago, I worked at a Casey's. Val is an insider. Anyhoo...she came out and I pushed my winners across the counter, and finished taking Abe's close-up. Then dropped him in my shirt pocket. After my transaction with the tickets was complete, that clerk said...

"Okay. I have to ask. What was with the picture?"

"Oh, I collect pennies that I find. I always take a picture. That's weird, I know..."

"Well, I have a penny story I have to tell you..."

She waited on the next customer, who was buying a slice of pizza, and revealed her experience. Let the record show that this is not a clerk I'm friendly with. We've never made small talk before. The clerks at Casey's are usually busy, and don't have time to chat. This gal is personable, though. Always friendly.

"Years ago, when we bought a new house, we did a walk-through inspection. The previous owners had cleaned everything out. When we went into the basement bathroom, there were pennies all over the floor! Weird, but we picked them up, thinking they must have fallen out of someone's pocket. A few days later, we started moving our stuff in. There were MORE pennies all over the floor of the basement bathroom. I said, 'Ooh! Someone is trying to tell us something!' But it gets weirder. We sold that house, and bought a new one over here. When we moved in, there were PENNIES ALL OVER THE FLOOR! I said, 'Looks like that spook followed us here!'"

The gray-haired old lady clerk was coming up to the other register. "Don't forget to tell her about the one that's after me!"

"Yeah, that one's in the store."

"I was stocking the cigarettes." She pointed to the area behind the counter, under the display of lottery tickets. "I was just standing here, and a carton of cigarettes shot out of the shelf at me! I don't know how it could have moved by itself!"

Indeed. The front of the counter is closed off, with a display of gum and candy. Doo doo doo doo!

I told Hick this story later that evening. As with most things I tell him, Hick pooh-poohed this tale. "Huh. If you pack those cartons of cigarettes in there wrong, one's going to fall out."

"It SHOT OUT AT HER! It didn't fall out."

"You sure have some funny ideas. I might as well start calling you Neighbor Bev."

"Okay. You're so smart. You know it all. Just wait until it happens to YOU!"

Don't go feeling sorry for poor put-upon Val. She's used to being belittled by Hick. I descended to my dark basement lair, the time being 7:45 p.m. Hick remained in the La-Z-Boy, although I heard him up and down stumping around from bedroom to kitchen, doing his laundry. At 9:50, I heard footsteps on the stairs. What in the not-heaven? Hick NEVER comes downstairs at night. No mistaking it though. That was his stumping.

"You're not gonna believe this! You know how you said it was fine until something happened to me? I put two pairs of brown shorts in the washer. I just got my clothes out of the dryer to fold, and there's ONLY ONE PAIR OF BROWN SHORTS!!!"

Seriously? This is what Hick considers SPOOKY? He was actually flustered.

"I'm sure you just put them somewhere else."

"NO! I looked all over the laundry room. They're not in the washer, and they weren't in the dryer! Where could they go?"

"Um. You're wearing a pair of brown shorts."

"No, not these. I put these on so I could wash the others. They're not plaid like this. They're solid. They had a kind of buckle thing at the waist."

"I hope they didn't get sucked into a pipe and clog the drains."

"There's no way they could do that. I don't know where they went. It's impossible!"

Yeah. My poor little non-believer seems to be a believer now. Although I'm sure there's a perfectly centsible explanation. It's not like Hick found a bunch of pennies on the laundry room floor.
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Good penny-fortune followed me to Norman, OK on WEDNESDAY, June 6th. I was talking to The Pony as I sat down at an 88 Fortunes slot to play a $10 ticket. The Pony was antsy, having cashed out a couple of big tickets to save, and wanting to find a different game with the $20 I'd given him when I hit a $19.46 progressive bonus. He sat down on the stool at the machine next to mine, and

I spied a PENNY on the floor as I pulled out my chair. Well! Of course I had to snap a pic to prove it happened!

This 2017 was obviously meant for me to find. Face down.
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But wait! On the trip home on FRIDAY, June 8th, Hick and I stopped by Downstream Casino. As we approached the exit, MY SONG came on the radio: "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye." (That song by Patty Loveless that makes me think of my mom. I've heard it leaving the cemetery, and when thinking about Mom, and talking to Hick about her.) Cool. As Hick drove past our regular parking lot, due to it being blocked off with metal gate thingies making a fence, I was happy, because that meant I might get to hear the whole song. Hick started to park in the lot closest to the door, but decided that it would probably be full. So he turned left, into the one next to it. He passed up three parking spots to his left, saying, "This one will be good," turning right, parking next to a light pole and a car that was straddling two spots.

I stepped out of A-Cad to see THIS:

Whoop-ti-doo! I couldn't believe it. I was taking the picture when the shuttle bus pulled up, but I told Hick that we'd walk. And snapped my phone photo. Couldn't have been positioned any more perfectly for me to find it! What a coincidence, huh?

Face down again! It was a 2012. Genius's senior year. Poor Genius. We'd been discussing The Pony the whole drive. You can bet I picked this up for my Future Pennyillionaire collection.
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So there you have it. A spooky penny tale from a convenience store clerk, and my trip to visit The Pony bookended by penny finds on the first day and the last day.
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For 2018: Pennies # 46, 47, 48.
For 2018: Dimes still at  # 8.
For 2018: Nickels still at # 2.

Since 2017 (the beginning), this was Penny # 124, 125, 126.
Since 2017 (the beginning), this was still Dime # 14.
Since 2017 (the beginning), this was still Nickel # 2.
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