50 Cents Worth of Wisdom

My Grandpa McNeilly use to tell a story on himself.  One in which he assumed a selfish motive.  He was a young man and had been working for his Dad (my great grandfather) since he was a little boy.  It was Christmas time and he thought he might like to take this certain young lady out on a date. So he told his Dad his plan and asked if he could have some money.  Since Grandpa hadn’t asked for any money up to this point he expected it to be OK.  His Dad went off and came back and handed Grandpa 50 cents.  Now even back in the 1920’s 50 cents was not much money for a date.  Grandpa was too shocked to protest.  After all of the hard work he had done and without ever asking for money and the one time he does he gets a measly 50 cents.  Grandpa would get real serious when telling this part of the story and say “I decided I wanted to find out just what kind of a man my father was” and so he went back over the whole year’s records.  Looking at what the farm had brought in each month and what Great Grandpa had paid out each month.  January, February, all through the spring months Grandpa did his calculations.  June, July August and all through the fall Grandpa reviewed the money coming in and the money going out.  Finally, he gets through November and to that week and December.  When it was all the money was accounted for Grandpa determined just how much money his Dad had.  And it was 50 cents.  Grandpa would sit quietly for a second to let it sink in and then he would say “I wanted to find out just what kind of a man my father was and that day I did.”   I guess 50 cents was just the right amount of money for a date because that young lady became by Grandmother.  And Great-grandpa was a man that did good even if his son did not know it at first.