There's a lot of fun to be had for a penny. You just have to know how to spend it (Bethel Baptist Church, a long time ago...)

I doubt anyone does this anymore (except in smaller and safer communities), but way-back-when, among the games and activities that adults would use to occupy teens, was a scavenger hunt.

The group was divided into small teams, given a penny and assigned to a neighborhood. Each team would go door to door and ask if the neighbor would be willing to sell something for a penny. If you were lucky, you got something worth more than a penny. Then you went to the next house, explained the contest, and asked if they'd be willing to exchange something for what you just bought for a penny.

And so on, for an hour or so; then you all returned for refreshments and the big unveiling where everyone ooohed and ahhhed or groaned at what a penny might buy.

My team won. We'd turned our penny into an electric carving knife, which the friendly and frumpy hausfrau said she hadn't used for years. (Whatever we had for trade must have appealed to her).

This was a Young People's event at Bethel Baptist Church in Erie, PA when it was on the east side. Even though our team had a handful of kids, I only remember Jenny Honecker, who was my first girlfriend, and a very sweet person.

There's a lot of fun to be had for a penny. You just have to know how to spend it.

[2014-05-21]

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