When I lost a tooth, the tooth fairy left a quarter under my pillow. It was a memorable occasion, because it meant I was growing up. I didn't like being a child and each milestone on the road to independence was an opportunity for rejoicing.

The quarter was my Saturday money. 10 cents for the movie matinee (usually a sound stage western), 5 cents for popcorn. My cousins and I all went together and made up a good third of the audience. We giggled and made noisy comments and generally had a lot of boisterous fun.

After the movie, we still had 10 cents, so sometimes we'd go shopping for penny candy or wax moustaches or whatever. Once in a while, one would buy and share with the others and the others would save the dime for future imagined orgies (2 penny candies, indeed! or even a soda). Planning was half the fun.

Maybe that's why I make my living nowadays as a planner, though the corporate budget is counted in the millions, not in quarters. Not a million times more fun, though.