I Have a Quarter

Recently, everyone went to the mall and bookstore to get out of the house. It had been raining, so it wasn’t ideal to be outdoors and an indoor activity made a lot of sense since the kids were going stir crazy. Even though I was tired, I tagged along with the newborn vs. staying home with him.

After we went to buy books and get a quick bite to eat, the kids wanted to go in the merry-go-round. Honestly, I wanted to go home, but they were really excited to get on a horse and spin around. We decided to walk over there and there was only room for three kids. The merry-go-round was so old as well that there was nobody wanting to ride any of the horses, so my kids had the whole ride to themselves. The only downside was that the merry-go-round required quarters, which we did not have. The wife thought that she had some cash and was digging around in the diaper bag, but there was no cat to be found.

We were just about leave when a little boy who was nearby spoke up and said he had some quarters. He was willing to give it to us so that we can start the ride. I was really surprised that both the boy actually had quarters with him in today’s world and that he was also willing to give it to us so that my kids could ride the merry-go-round. It was just a really sweet moment.

Because the merry-go-round was so old, we didn’t end up taking the boy up on his offer since there was a risk that the ride didn’t work. We thanked him many times and he had a parting word of advice - the merry-go-round could spin manually as well. Although I was happy for that piece of advice, I almost wish she didn’t say that because I ended up having to manually spin the merry-go-round for about 20 minutes. We were there so long that another little girl saw how much fun my kids were having a ran up to ride the last horse on the merry-go-round. Her father gladly plopped down on a bench to take a break and I was spinning the ride until we had to go.

I’m glad I ended up going to the mall even though I was tired with the newborn. I got to witness a really genuine act from a little boy and I also got in my workout for the day by spinning the merry-go-round. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!