From dimes to dollars to hundreds to millions ...

by Pat Laster

When I was a child, the oldest of eight, at Christmas we would be given a whole dollar and allowed to shop in Sterling’s, a five-and-dime store. One dollar, at a dime each, was enough to buy every member of the family a special gift: A hankie for Mom, comb for Dad, barrettes for sisters, marbles for brothers, and writing paper for the teacher.
As we got older, we were given a dollar per gift. And after I began teaching school, I sometimes gave my college-age siblings a hundred dollars for Christmas!
Nowadays, spending a hundred dollars or more for two weeks of Schwan’s frozen foods is nearly a given, especially when Kid Billy is to be home from Henderson. Monthly expenses that top a hundred dollars are the tithe, the electricity bill, car- life- home insurance premiums, dental checkups, and the AT&T wireless statement.
Though no one I know claims to be worth a million dollars, it is not uncommon to see—in many news articles––figures of so-many million this or that. I haven’t yet taken an entire page of news and underlined every “million(s),” but I have jotted down many instances where the word is used–– either in a headline or in the body of the article.
Like not being able to fathom the ozone layer extending twenty miles, I can’t imagine anything in the millions except grains of sand, stars and gallons of water in each ocean. What follows are some sentences/statements that use the m-word.
• Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people. Americans spend $36 million at Wal-Mart every hour of every day.
• In 1942, the Progressive Farmer had one million subscribers.
• Millions of Americans are out of work . . .
• A savings of $200 million will accrue by closing 3700 post offices.
• Construction on an $11 million apartment complex in west Little Rock began August 8 2011.
• The US sends $100 million in food aid to Africa.
• Twenty-four million people are receiving food aid in Kenya.
• The Arkansas Education Department is planning to carry over $36.2 million from last year’s budget to this year’s.
• Thirty-five million “unique” users in the US every single month come to MySpace, according to T. Vanderhook, CEO.
• There were 25 million landline telephones at June 2011’s end, down from 26 million at the end of 2010.
• Here’s a lottery prize of $99 million in Ohio.
• A man is accused of sending 27 million spam messages to Facebook users.
• Two million people lost power recently in the Southwest.
• A $1 million lottery prize was worth only (only??) $680,000 after state and federal taxes.
• A California woman won $9 million in the Super Lotto. . .
• Jon Huntsman, a 2012 presidential candidate, owns assets of between $16-$71 million.
• A header in Sunday’s paper: “Vikings lock Adrian Peterson into long-term deal; could be worth $100 million.”
About as many articles deal with figures in the billions of dollars, so that soon, perhaps, sports figures and presidential candidates will pull down and/ or be worth billions of dollars.
Unless, of course, a Depression occurs and the dime is once again the measure of wealth.

c 2011 Pat Laster dba lovepat press
Check out Laster's first novel, A Journey of Choice, at online book sellers.