An Obsolete Offence

At my high school, a couple of old two-story buildings in white brick survived from the days when an orphanage had occupied the property. The ground floor of the building to the north was called "the freshman lounge". I don't remember spending much time there as a freshman. My only memory of it, was that it had at least one soft-drink machine.One day, all the freshmen were assembled to be told off by Brother Benedict, FSC. Someone had gone to collect the take from a soft-drink machine, and found many filed-down pennies where dimes should have been. Brother Benedict let us know that this was conduct unbecoming. He must have issued threats, but what they were I have long forgotten. Those of us--the great majority of us--who had not filed down pennies resented this.Back then there were no Dremels. If you wished to file down a penny, you needed a vice and a file. By then the minimum wage was $1.60 per hour. To earn that by filing down pennies to dime-size, you would have had to file down…