By George

 

The PS22 Chorus of Staten Island, 65 public school fifth graders, performs Joni Mitchell’s “River” on Youtube. As one boy sings  “I’m gonna make a lot of money and quit this crazy scene,” he grins into the camera and rubs his thumb over his index and middle finger … the universal wordless vernacular for “moolah.”  

Centuries ago, when I was a squirt, I asked my Basque grandmother Justina why she left her home and family and came to this city as a young woman. She did the money sign. I didn’t know what it meant but someone told me soon after - probably my mother or one of my older sisters. All these years later - the sign. It makes me wonder who first did it and how it spread and grew to become as recognized a motion as a smile.