Did you catch the recent news story that the U.S. Mint won’t be making anymore pennies. Why? Well the story explains that it costs $3.69 to make a single penny, that’s why. But shed no tears yet, there are still an estimated 300 billion pennies remaining in circulation and they are still legal tender.
But consider some oft-quoted expressions that soon will fade:

• A penny for your thoughts
• Cost a pretty penny
• A penny saved is a penny earned
• Find a penny, pick it up and all day long you’ll have good luck.
• No more “pinching pennies”
• Worth every penny
• I’ll give you my 2-cents worth
• Penny-wise and pound-foolish
• He’s a 2-bit criminal

What about my favorite penny, the 1943 zinc coated steel penny…… so made to save copper for the wartime effort:

Introducing myself, I often say “I was born the year of the Black Penny….who knows what that is?”  And most do not. When I was about eight years old, I collected a pint jar of black pennies…..wish I still had them today. 

Bet you’d never guess at the number of American towns having Christmas-related names. I was amazed. Consider:

Santa, Benewah County, Idaho;   Santa Claus in Indiana;  Santa Claus in Mohave County, Arizona;  Santa Claus in Toombs County, Georgia;    Christmas in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan;   North Pole near Fairbanks, Alaska;   North Pole in Essex County, New York;   Snowflake in Navajo County, Arizona;  Noel in McDonald County, Missouri;   Rudolph in Wood County, Wisconsin;  Holly in Oakland County, Michigan;   Christmas Valley in Lake County, Oregon, which is near Christmas Lake;   Dasher in Lowndes County, Georgia.

And I’d bet with a few minutes searching with Grandma Google, you could find dozens more! 
Dear Reader, were you born in a “Christmas” town? Love to hear from you if so.  

Does anybody living remember little Freddie Whitehouse? 

This dear soul rests in a remote part of Greenwood Cemetery in Spokane. The inscription reads:  FREDDIE, son of L.M. and H.M., died July 28, 1888, aged 5 years, 7 months, 27 days. He was likely named after Lewis’s brother, Fred, who died in 1872. 

In the summer of 1888, there was an epidemic of typhoid fever in Spokane. Is this his cause of death? 
A (well sourced) family tree found on Ancestry shows him to be the son of Lewis Hanson Whitehouse, born 1844 in Maine, died 1919 in California, and Hannah Mein, born 1845 in Scotland, died 1926 in California. Little Freddie had siblings Lewis, Herbert and Eva. Lewis and Hannah had married on 17 Aug 1871 in Port Townsend, Jefferson County, WA. 

Somehow Lewis and Hannah migrated unmarried from Maine and Scotland by 1871. So the Whitehouse family was in Washington Territory well before statehood and were living in Spokane by 1885.
Does anybody remember little Freddie Whitehouse?

This is why it is so important to record family stories. Not one child deserves to be forgotten. Take part of your day-after-Christmas to write down a memory from yesterday, Christmas Day, 2025. 

Susan Gallyon Dechant, president of the Northeast Washington Genealogical Society, does have a beautiful smile but she was not smiling when she gave a thoughtful presentation to her group on Wednesday, November 12.

Susan knew that her father, Charles Gallyon, had served in WWII in the Army’s10th Mountain Division but not much more. Upon her brother’s death, Susan inherited their father’s trunk containing treasures. These included artifacts, photos, notebooks and some 400 letters he’d written to Susan’s mother during his service years.

The 10th Mountain trained in the high mountains of Colorado for nearly two years before being sent to Italy in 1944. Their mission was to wipe the German presence from northern Italy. It was winter; the terrain mountainous…just what they’d trained for. And they succeeded. AND Susan’s father lived to return home.
Susan tearfully recalled reading the letter dated May 1, 1945, telling his wife what he had been doing in the war ……. that very day Susan was being born in far away California. 
In September, 2025, to mark the 80th anniversary of the 10th Mountain’s success in Italy, Susan, her two sisters, and Lora Rose (another member of the NeWGS group whose father was also attached to the 10th Mountain) went on the anniversary tour. They tearfully walked the very places where their fathers walked. To their amazement, they were feted every day of the trip by the Italian people still in thankfulness for their liberation some 80 years previously. 

Why share Susan’s story? To remind you that every family has family stories! Every grandfather did something to be remembered for. And it’s up to us, you and me, to ferret out those stories and tell them.