George Held, a guest poet on Blogfinger, seems to be channeling a past where pennies were more important than they are today. In fact, will pennies go the way of the half penny? Does George still have a few pennies clattering around in his pockets?
George doesn’t categorize the two penny pieces below. He refers to them as “shorties:”
Penny
Penny was sixteen and wore penny loafers, a shiny copper penny in each slot. Twelve, you were infatuated by her – her pleated plaid skirt, bobby sox, and those penny loafers. How you wanted to kiss her, but she just laughed when you blew her a kiss across the school yard.
Penny Loafers
Karl, wearing penny loafers, challenges fifth-grade classmate Jorge, in Keds, to pitch pennies against a wall by the gym. But Jorge has a knack for leaners and beats Karl in their “pitch off.” Karl doesn’t mind losing twenty-five pennies, but he can’t bear losing to Jorge. “I’ll get you yet,” he thinks in his devious heart. Jorge becomes a surgeon, Karl a banker.
Gucci penny loafers: $416.00—41,600 pennies– try taking bag of pennies into the Gucci store at Saks Fifth Avenue.
BRENDA LEE made a “fortune” collecting pennies from heaven:
Note: George Held is a retired professor at Queens College. He has written children’s books which are quite wonderful (look them up) as well as other writings. We know him on Blogfinger as a poet.
A penny for his thoughts, but with inflation, this idiom might require changing.