The Coin Purse

There are some things that really mark the beginning of the slide down the cliff of aging: complaining about music being too loud, punctuating movements such as lifting or rising from a squat with groans and grunts, and the use of the coin purse.

You’ve seen the coin purse before, it’s ridiculously small, made in a strange shape, and an older person at the grocery store in front of you is usually using it…when you’re in a hurry.

The coin purse is not an accessory that is made for expedience; coins are thrown into it and land in such a way that getting the exact coin you need at the time you need it is impossible. The only difference between the use of the coin purse and carrying coins in a plastic sandwich bag is the coin purse is sturdier. I am actually surprised these things are still being manufactured because carrying cash and change is so last year.

I will tell you that I have never purchased a coin purse, my good friend Tricia gave it to me. Tricia gave me a set of purses 15 years ago, there were four of them, the two largest were perfect for travel size makeup bags, the next size was an odd size; too small for makeup but too large for anything else, and the last one was…a coin purse.

I disdained the coin purse in fact, on several occasions, I very nearly threw it away but something stopped me every time. The coin purse appeared many times over the years, always in strange locations like bathroom drawers or shoeboxes in a closet; it was as if it was mocking me saying: “silly young woman you will, one day, bow to me.” “Resistance is futile!”

Okay, I may have gotten carried away with the Star Trek reference, but you get my meaning don’t you?

One day I was very frustrated about all the change swimming at the bottom of my purse; the wallet I was using didn’t have an area for coins. I was faced with the quandary of what to do about my dilemma when my mind offered up the siren song: “you could use the change purse Tricia gave you”. I pondered the suggestion and I knew right where the coin purse was located, under the bathroom sink; this time when I thought of using it, it didn’t seem so bad. ZAP! Just like that, I was absorbed into the old folk collective of coin purse users.

Resistance really was futile, when it comes to the disdain of coin purses; I’m not that girl anymore.