Hartley Neita
SAVING FOR tomorrow was one of the lessons my father taught me when I was a child. Unfortunately, when I left the parental home I forgot this lesson, a lapse I regret to this day.
One of my childhood recollections was of a globe showing the countries of the world and the oceans, which he kept in our dining room. This globe had a slit just below the north pole in which he inserted coins of every denomination farthings half-pennies, pennies, three-pences, six-pences, one shilling, two shillings and two shillings and six-pence.
The coins saved came from things he had planned to do, and did not. For example, if he intended to take our mother to the movies, and it rained, he would place the fare of two shillings in the globe. If he was going to Kingston by train and a friend offered to take him by car, the train fare of four shillings would be inserted in the globe.
He started in January every year. At that time we children could hold it in our tiny hands. By November it was weighted with the copper and silver coins of the times. Two weeks before Christmas he took a key from his bedroom and invited us see how much had been saved.
There was a lid in the globe, about where the Antarctic Ocean was, and this was the lid he opened with the key. Out poured every year, scores of coins. It was an early lesson for us children to learn to count money which we did slowly.
Now I do not remember how much money saved in this way, but what I do recall is that I thought my father was rich. It was so much money. Later in the day he rode his bicycle to the Bank of Nova Scotia in May Pen with the coins in a bag and converted them into notes - one pound, ten shilling and five shilling notes. This, my mother and he used to buy presents and other Christmas goodies.
Sometime after I started working, he gave me a coin calendar box which was made available by the Government Savings Bank to their customers. I seem to remember that each day you dropped a one shilling coin in a slot, and I think the date changed. When it was full you took it to the bank if you lived in Kingston or to a post office if you lived in the country where the box would be opened and the money lodged to your account. I saved 18 pounds and five shillings in this way during the first year, then got bored with having to make sure I had a shilling to change the date each day.
Years later, my bank, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce introduced a Christmas Savings Scheme to its customers. It involved giving the bank a standing order to deduct a fixed amount from your current account each month beginning in January. Then, on or about the middle of December, a beautiful red, green, and white cheque was posted to the customers with the amount which had been deducted during the previous eleven months. Along with the cheque was a blank standing order for the following year.
It was a nice way of saving for Christmas, but I believe it fell out of fashion. The reason, I seem to recall, was that no interest was paid on these savings and somehow I remember the bank manager telling me that it was difficult to calculate the interest on an increasing amount each month. And I believed him.
I am still a loyal customer of this bank even with its name change, and I would join such a scheme again if it was re-introduced as long as I would enjoy an attractive rate of interest. How about it, Mrs. Williams?
