Still four for a dollar

 

I have enjoyed seeing the various quarter dollars the US has produced over the years. First one I can remember was the 1976 Bicentennial quarter that had the regular quarter face and the Revolutionary drummer on the back.

Then came the state quarters and the other commemorative 25-centers, all very nice. And four of them would get you anything at the Dollar Tree...

Now we have a new quarter just released this week, one which means a lot to many people. It features noted poet, activist, and college professor Maya Angelou. Angelou is the first Black woman to appear on the US quarter.

Hers is the first quarter in the "American Women Quarters Program," a four-year program that will include coins featuring prominent women in U.S. history.

Future coins will honor astronaut Sally Ride; actress Anna May Wong; suffragist and politician Nina Otero-Warren; and Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. 

Those coins will be shipped out this year through 2025, according to the Mint.

Ms Angelou died at age 86 in 2014. In her lifetime, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama and won the book award known as the Literarian Award. She was the first Black woman, and second-ever poet, to read a self-composed poem at a presidential inauguration, for Bill Clinton in 1992. She published more than 30 bestselling works, and if you can only choose to learn one thing from a poet, let it be from her: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

It's not her fault, but it will take 5 of her quarters to get what you need at Dollar Tree. They just became the $1.25 Tree and it's still the best bargain in town, except for mustard at Aldi.

Speaking of poets at inaugurations, Robert Frost was the first poet to speak at the inauguration of a president, for John Kennedy in 1961. We watched on TV. He tried to read "Dedication," which he had written for the ceremony, but the glare of the sun kept him from reading the words on the white paper. Even as people (Lyndon Johnson among them) tried to shadow the paper with their hats, the glimmer of the sun stopped him, and, being a flinty  Vermonter, he simply recited his old favorite "The Gift Outright." 

I have often joked with people, telling them that among Frost's accomplishments was the writing of the lyrics to "Twist And Shout" for The Isley Brothers. That's just my little bit of humor, but the fact remains, he did play saxophone on the record.