George and Hattie Box Turney were a part of Ponca when I grew up. They had a store and George used his Ford Pickup to haul things from Harrison (we always said town) for his store and things for people of the community. Hattie was such a short lady, but so sweet. She never had children but George had a nice family with his first wife, Louie Reynolds Turney ^{(Item #1082)}.

A short story about me...I always loved to draw and 'color.' I used creek rocks that were soft and almost like chalk in different colors. I used charcoal from under the wash pot and drew pictures on old boards. I even used colored sand to make pictures in white sand.

I had been to George Turney's store many times and saw the boxes of crayons he had for 5 cents a box. Oh, how I longed to have those crayons and dreamed of the beautiful pictures I could paint with them on a nice piece of white paper. Mom had left me at the house one day to take care of baby sister and I started looking around in the cabinet. There was five shiny pennies. Immediately I thought of the box of crayons at the store. I took the five shiny pennies and hid them until I could go and get the crayons. I hid them when I got home because I knew I was wrong to take them. Eventually Mom needed a stamp to mail a letter to family in California and a stamp was 3 cents. She started looking for five shiny pennies and asking questions all at the same time. I had to admit that I took the pennies to buy the crayons. After she finished telling me how important those pennies were and that was all the money we had in the world I cried for days. To this day it is difficult for me to go buy something I really want. I have to need it before I can buy without feeling guilt and being reminded of five shiny pennies. I suppose that is why I have jars of them sitting around my house now.

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