Old Money

Having just returned from a visit back east with my mother-in-law, here's a post about some old bank notes she gave which she had been keeping as mementos of a bygone era. 

The Dominion Of Canada 25¢ bill is from 1900!

I already had some 1950's era bills myself and thought the ones from the mid to late 1920's were cool, then saw the 25¢ paper note from the year 1900 and was blown away by those, especially with King George VI on the bills. "The Dominion Of Canada' certainly puts the times into perspective!

I remember using the old 50's era bills as a kid,  though I can tell you that back then I never had anything more than a $1.oo or $2.oo bill, and even those were not something I was carrying around in my pocket. I'd be lucky if I had any loose change, and that probably included lots of pennies. Nowadays, kids might say "what's a penny?" haha.

And, though it had something to do with the fact that my father was in the military and we lived in the P.M.Q's ( Private Married Quarters) on a base where prices were low (no tax maybe) my money sure went pretty far for me. My dad would give me 25¢ to go to the Saturday matinee or the swimming pool and it would get me in the door and I'd have enough for a treat too! Yikes, am I aging myself or what? LOL

These bills are from the early 50's

The good old days I'd say, but maybe for not the reason some people think. In this case I mean that back then, candy and pop and all the other crap that seems so prevalent today just wasn't an every day thing for me and my friends and it really was a 'treat'.

Same with 'entertainment', where we'd actually play games (gasp!) with one another. And, I got to watch one or two t.v. shows  a week and the choices were limited. Hockey Night In Canada was great, even in black and white (yup!). I'd get up early and get out of the house before my parents were up and disappear pretty much all day Saturday, swimming at the pool or playing shinny in the Winter. I was a bit of a bad kid too, like when we'd swipe some cigars from the PX and hang out in our fort in the woods.

Sometimes we'd sneak off the base, which meant going through restricted areas where they did tank training or other military exercises, so we could explore. We never got caught but had our fair share of brushes and close calls with the M.P.'s ( Military Police). We'd go over to the river and dive off the train trestle or go to the dump that was between the base and the nearest town where we'd pick through stuff and break bottles and other stuff with rocks.

Maybe the old money isn't just of interest in the banking and financial sense, but conjures up old memories of bygone days!