Between them they had just one cent.
It really wore hard on the gent.
The sweets or the sours?
They stood there for hours
Till he, and the penny, were spent.
Congratulations to Cheryl Ireland of Chesterfield, Michigan! For her limerick, Cheryl wins $25 and our gratitude for her witty and entertaining poem describing Frances Tipton Hunter’s August 19, 1939, cover Penny Candy.
If you’d like to enter the Limerick Laughs Contest for our next issue of The Saturday Evening Post, submit your limerick through our online entry form.
We received a lot of great limericks. Here are some of the other ones that made us smile, in no particular order:
Our decision is made with great care
Since we’ve only a penny to share.
But if we had our druthers
We’d surely pick others
But we’d melt ‘neath the counter boy’s glare.—Barbara Wills, Blaine, Minnesota
There was a young girl named Sandy
Who had just one penny for candy.
As she savored her sweet
She was heard to repeat,
“Tough luck!” to her brother named Andy.—Brian Federico, Clyde, New York
The man on the candy sales staff
Tried hard to look bored and not laugh
When Janie and Benny
Showed up with one penny
Asking, “Please cut that sucker in half?”—Ed Tramell, Wheat Ridge, Colorado
“Though time equals money,” sighs Lenny,
“Of either I barely have any.
My time’s taken up
By these tots and their pup
While inflation devalues their penny.”—Jeff Foster, San Francisco, California
The candy shop just down the street
Is where my twins go for a treat.
The candy’s a penny
But they don’t buy many
Because they’re already so sweet!—Marcia Gwin, San Diego, California
To bask in a love is a balm
That’s so often repeated in psalm.
But the best of the many
Is a child’s last penny
That’s spent on a present for Mom.—Paul Desjardins, West Kelowna, British Columbia
As the slacker appears to be pensive,
He considers a counteroffensive
At the girl with her doll
Since she whines with a drawl:
“But a penny for sweets is expensive!”—Ryan Tilley, Altamonte Springs, Florida
“It’s been one whole hour,” he’s musing,
“And these children are nowhere near choosing.
So ten minutes more,
And that mutt on the floor
Will have some company snoozing.”—Ted Hayes, Mint Hill, North Carolina
This job is an easy position,
But based on some simple division,
You can’t pay the rent,
When the candy’s one cent
And you’re just being paid on commission.—Neal Levin, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
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