My brother is the writer in the family. I’m the “wannabe” writer. I write for me. He writes for others. He’s actually written a few books. I mention him because a few months ago, in a conversation we were talking about writing. I told him about the creative writing class I started to take when I was in college, but had to drop out because of family reasons.

My brother, being the cool guy that he is, sent me a book recently to encourage me to write. You’ve probably seen it in Barnes and Noble – I know I had at least 20 times, but never picked it up. It’s called 300 Writing Prompts. It is just that – 300 random things to get your mind thinking and to write.

I usually sit down to write and have some sort of idea of what I am going to write about. As a matter of fact, I have two or three ideas that I am working on right now, but they are not ready yet. So, in an effort to keep writing, I have randomly opened up the book my brother gave me and what follows is the result. Today’s topic:

Describe one odd thing in your wallet

Upon reading the prompt, I immediately knew what I was going to write about, without even opening my wallet! Now, I admit it is not odd to have a dollar bill in your wallet, but some might consider half of a dollar bill a bit odd. Yes, I carry around one half of a dollar bill in my wallet and have had it in there for years! Here is the story behind it:

My best friend, Jeff, and I have been friends since second grade! Our friendship has lasted over 40 years! I meant to write a blog about him on his birthday, and life just never seemed to give me the proper time to write it. I probably could write a book just about our friendship and the crazy stuff we’ve done over the years, but for this blog, I will just share one. (I probably will write the book …)

I don’t recall how old we were. We were probably just out of high school. I remember Jeff telling me that he was going to move to Nevada. He dad lived there and he had decided that he was going there to find a job or something. Now, for the better part of my life, he had always been around. Our friendship was something that I still have trouble putting into words. I was having a hard time knowing that he was leaving.

I don’t recall where I got the idea from. It may have been based on something I read, it may have been based on those best friend necklaces that girls were wearing, or it could have been something I saw on TV. At any rate, I took a dollar bill and wrote my name on one side of it and Jeff’s name on the other. I ripped the bill in half and before Jeff left, I gave him the half with my name on it. I told him that I was keeping the half with his name and no matter what, I’d always be thinking about him. I think this gesture was more for me than it was for him.

He didn’t stay in Nevada long, and returned to Michigan shortly after leaving. It didn’t matter, the “half” dollar always remained in my wallet. Any time I have had to get a new wallet, it has always made the journey into the new one. Not that I need it, but it is a reminder of a life long friendship that is worth more to me than any amount of money in the world.

Of course, I think that bastard lost his half! I still love him like a brother!