From a newspaper circa 1909:
—————————–
READY MONEY.
—————————–
A dollar gives you confidence,
Five makes you walk on air,
A ten-spot lets you face the world
Without a thought of care.
With fifty large ones right away
You feel your own true worth,
But get a hundred-dollar bill —
Ah, well you own the earth.******
Just let a fellow walk about
Without a lonely dime
He feels as though for sure he must
Be guilty of a crime.
And when a copper floats around
He doesn’t want to stay,
Before the shadow of the blue
He quickly fades away.******
Without a plentitude of dough
A fellow isn’t one, two, three.
In fact, he only reaches up
Just half way to a cricket’s knee.
But let him stir himself about
And fall heir to a little dot
Of several thousand, more or less,
Then he’s some pumpkins, maybe not.******
A dollar gives you confidence
And several other things. For why?
Because you know that what you need
You readily may go forth and buy.
Five, then, and twenty makes things hum,
One hundred gives you quite a thrill;
Where would a man get off if he
Possessed a thousand-dollar bill?—————————–
Still pretty accurate over 100 years later ;)
Keep saving!
******
PS: $1.00 in 1909 would be like $28.19 today. Making that $1,000 bill = $28,193.19! A real note that used to circulate back in the day… (though mostly in real estate deals or interbank transfers)
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This is actually a really concise description of how having money gives a feeling of confidence and/or power. That third stanza though….”Then he’s some pumpkins…” ??
I know, haha…
Had to re-read it a few times to make sure I re-typed it right, but that’s what it said!
I’m thinking it means the more you have the more you can afford such things, like pumpkins? Or perhaps if you DON’T save enough money you’ll end up in the dirt with the pumpkins?! ;)
Good Read! Life is forever going in a circle.
Happy Friday!
Thanks!
You too!
some pumpkins and some punkins:
n. someone or something great or special. “That gal is some punkins!”
See also: pumpkin
McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Now that makes more sense, lol…