PaPaw's Dollar

PaPaw's Dollar He must have been just getting to that stage, Nolan, when a kid learns to understand paper money and moves on from change. PaPaw gave him a dollar bill, perhaps for a special occasion. To make it even more special, he wrote on it, " To Nolan. Love, PaPaw." I still remember when we found it. "Ah, look," Alvin said. "Nolan lost his dollar." Remembering losing things as a little child, and remembering when our children lost a favorite toy or a newly received gift, we felt Nolan's pain. We imagined PaPaw saying, "Now, don't lose it, Nolan. You're too big a boy." And we imagined Nolan not wanting to tell anyone. PaPaw's dollar was one of the early pieces we created in our minds. Later we found some PaPaw's hankie, then a big blue bandana. They just went together. We knew they demanded a simple treatment, something that wouldn't take away from the message. So we made a faux board, something PaPaw might have had laying around his barn, and hung them there. They're only put together with a head pin. So if we find Nolan, or his PaPaw, it will be easy to take apart. We hope Nolan was able to spend that dollar before it was lost. But if he didn't, it is still in spendable form.