home for the hunter

you might think that it's not so hard to get a 2012 penny in mid-april of 2012.

you might think it.

you'd be wrong.

i was expecting to have difficulty finding the oldest pennies in the set, but after searching a lot of people's penny jars and making calls to both my bank and my grocery store and putting up a sign in my neighborhood, i found myself running out of time and still no 2012 penny.

so i decided to hit my local businesses.

i live somewhere between jericho and richmond, and even though the jericho center store is the closest store to my house, it's not on my way to anything most of the time, but a couple of miles in the wrong direction so i usually go into richmond for what i can get there and williston for things such as need buying at big stores.

but today i decided to go to the jericho center store.

when the woman behind the counter looked to me, i stepped up and said "hi, your day isn't weird enough yet, so i'm here."

"bring it on!", she said, laughing.

so i explained what i wanted and she was only too happy to go through he register drawer, but there was no 2012 penny. there were some collection jars for causes on the counter and she said she'd be happy to look in those after she waited on the people that had come to the counter.

so i kind of hung out, looking at a thing i might want to purchase.

no, i'm not telling what.

but after a few minutes i heard a shout.

"is the lady who wanted the penny still here?"

and another shout: "we have the penny!"

"BINGO!", i hollered, from the back of the store.

the woman behind the counter was holding it like a trophy.

apparently, one of the other customers had heard the exchange and either found one in her car or asked another customer, but the upshot was that the right penny had just materialized and there was much rejoicing by a group of strangers over one penny.

i went ahead and bought the thing i was looking at, and skipped happily out.

i gave you the link for the store above, but i'm going to give it to you again.

the jericho center country store is an interesting place in its own right, and mildly famous. if you are ever passing through here, you should stop in.  they are friendly and often they have just what you need.