It has been said that the safest way to save your money is fold it over once and put it in your pocket.

Well, the Rev. Harry (Father) Dunn didn’t handle certain money that way because his special savings were mostly pennies and other coins he saved during the six years he served as pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Williamson. I learned about his hobby just before his departure for a new parish.

I called the Rev. Dunn earlier to tell him I had saved some Daily News issues containing the story about his imminent departure to Bancroft, in Putnam County and also had his photo to return.

The next day, he rushed into my little office at the Daily News to collect the papers and photo and I said goodbye to a person who, with his dog, “Brandy,” had become familiar to the people of this area and an enjoyable acquaintance of mine. I extended my wishes for his new assignment and for happiness and contentment in the area he will be serving — Bancroft, Nitro and Dunbar.

During our verbal exchanges, he laughed and told me about how he had just finished counting the pennies he had picked up off the streets and had put away during his stay here.

“I had saved $254.27,” said the Rev. Dunn.

“It was my way of encouraging our young people to save their money and to point out that old saying, ‘A penny saved is a penny earned,’” he explained.

People who may have read a column of mine once in awhile probably have figured out that one of my hobbies is collecting and reading- quotations. This ranks second behind my addiction to solving crosswords, Quiptaquips and other puzzles that appear in newspapers.

Now, I keep hearing from many sources, including the national media, that newspapers are on their way out. Well, after 66 years in the business, I beg to disagree. TV can be boring at times because of the repetition the viewer faces.

Most people like to sit comfortably at home and peruse a newspaper that contains all kinds of breaking news, society items, sports, advice columns, and so on, and enjoy the comics and so-called “Mind Stretchers” - then how can they forsake us?

When I arise each morning about 6 a.m., or even earlier, the first things I do are to make coffee, dodge an affectionate “Smokey” the cat on my way out to get ‘ the morning paper and return inside to sit down, drink my coffee, read the news and work the puzzles. Now, I do say my prayer then or later for, at my age, I like to thank my Maker for yet another day in my life, no matter how humdrum or frustrating, it can be these days.

If you remember George Burns and Gracie Allen of radio, movie and TV fame, then you know how nutty Gracie was at times. One of my favorite quotes of Gracie has to do with money: “I couldn’t be out of money. I still have checks.” That’s happened to all of us at one time or another, having checks but no cash in the bank to back them up.

Some anonymous person once said something that struck a responsive chord in me: “Why is there always so much month left at the end of the money?”

Remember comic-cowboy Will Rogers? He suggested “Invest in inflation. It’s the only thing going up.”

George W. Biount, whoever he is, or was, once said, _ “If you have something to do that is worthwhile doing, don’t talk about it ... do it,.” The late Daily News Editor Wally Warden, who died in 1991 at age 38, might have read that suggestion for I had approached him excitedly more than once, to tell him some news.

He would look up hautily and say, “Don’t tell me about it. Write it.” That’s why all the things that befell me got into print during the 1977- flood era. Our home had been inundated and my husband and I were living in a HUD trailer situated on our property while we restored the house.

I came to work one morning, intending to tell Wally about awaking in my HUD trailer and detecting something moving in my pillow. I reached behind me, squeezing the pillow slightly, and felt something wiggling. No one needed to tell me: that was a mouse.

I leaped out of bed, carrying the pillow as I ran down the hallway to the kitchen where my husband was making coffee, and said, “Doc, there’s a mouse in my pillow.” I figured he would shake the critter out and stomp him. He stomped him, all right, but left the mouse in the pillow. Cross out one pillow and one pillowcase.

So, that’s how my weekly columns got launched, as I told everyday happenings, some funny and others sad. I have had people comment to me through the years, “I wish I could write.” Well, you can. Just get a notebook, a pen or pencil, collect your thoughts and scribble them down.

My family has bugged me for years to write our family history and I would, if I had time. “Make time,” they say.

Well, at the rate my joints stiffen up these days during hours in front of the computer at the office, I just may get busy on that bio sooner than expected.

But, while I think of it, let me tell you what somebody named Merry Browne wrote about money in The Wise and Witty Quote Book: “If you want an accounting of your worth, count your friends.”

And the late Colonel Sanders of KFC fame (no kin to honorary Col. Charlotte Sanders) once observed:

“There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can’t do any business from there.”

Just think, dear readers, how you would miss reading these witty sayings if you had no newspaper at your door!