We Grow a Good Crop of Rocks

If someone ever asked me what my first job was, I suppose I could say, "Picking rocks."* My parents did not give us an allowance; but they did pay us for various jobs we did, one of which was picking rocks out of the garden--NOT my favorite job, but part of the fabric of my childhood nevertheless--and now I appreciate the value of it much more than I did back then. In the days of old when I was a girl, we got paid 10 cents for a bucket of rocks. And our garden produced LOTS of rocks of all shapes and sizes; there was never a shortage!

Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Now the next generation of children is growing up on this land and getting to experience many of the joys of my childhood (which were countless!) as well as the less preferable, but helpful and character-building, jobs.

A while back, my parents returned from a trip to town absolutely delighted with two small pails that they had bought for Josiah and David. I remember my mother exclaiming, "They're so cute!" and she was talking about the buckets, not my boys (though I know she thinks they're cute, too). :) Josiah wrote his name on his bucket and David's name on the other one, and Grandpa and Grandma explained to him that when he filled his bucket with rocks from the garden, he would get 50 cents. 50 cents! That's a lot more than I got!!! Inflation must be to blame, I guess. :)

This past week, my mother and I have spent a lot of time working in the garden...so consequently, Josiah and David have spent a lot of time outside playing with balls, a racquet, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, swings, a play lawn mower, etc. And, of course, buckets for rocks. Although David is too young to understand what's going on and therefore isn't expected to fill his bucket or get paid any money, Josiah sure knows what's up! He finished filling his first bucket load two evenings ago; and the next morning, he was wondering where his money was! He was ready to march down to his grandparents' house to ask them for it! :)

It's been a great lesson for him: the importance of hard work and discipline, the necessity of patience when wages are delayed :), and the value of money. He kept talking about 50 pennies, so I talked with him several times about what money is worth and how 2 quarters are worth 50 cents, 5 dimes are worth 50 cents, etc. When he received his money from my mom, he was a bit puzzled when he saw 2 dimes and 6 nickels; but it was a perfect opportunity to talk further about the value of money and have an impromptu math lesson. In the end, he was a happy camper as he put his money in his big train coin bank!

* My other first money-making endeavor was reading books, and I received 10 cents for each book I read. I'm not sure if reading books for money or picking rocks for money happened first. If I had my choice of reading a book for 10 cents or picking a bucket of rocks for 10 cents, well, there just wasn't any competition there AT ALL, and reading would win hands down every time. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my mother didn't allow me to read all the time, though I did sneak it in whenever I could. When I ate breakfast, I would read all the cereal boxes...when I went to my room to clean it, my mother would find me much later reading a book that I had pulled from the bookshelf I was dusting. I couldn't figure out a way to read while picking rocks though!