I’m sure all of you have seen the debit card or visa check card commercials where everyone is happily parading about purchasing and dancing and purchasing and dancing. But then, one poor sod comes up with cash and the world stops, the cashier looks at the guy as if he has the plague and everyone else rolls their eyes at the stupidity of that man / woman. A cute, relatively innocent scenario – you’d think. But there is dark underbelly to purchasing in this country (or rather in Bowling Green and Nashville) and it’s paying with change.
Because we are not rich people, the boys and I actively save for vacation / recreation by collecting change and putting it in the piggy bank. Sometimes we add a few bills, but mostly it’s change. And when it’s time to go on vacation, we roll the change and that’s our free spending money. Usually, I take the money to the bank and exchange it for cash. But this weekend – as we began our expedition to see the live dinosaurs in Nashville, I didn’t have time to get it to the bank – so I had roughly $30 in change (the equivalent of 50 lbs). Our first stop was Russellville for gasoline. So I sent Jose in with the change and $20. The gas station refused to accept the rolled coins as payment. I couldn’t believe it. Although secretly, when Jose came back and told me, I thought that perhaps it was a prejudicial thing.
That evening, we stopped by a drive through at McDonald’s. And I again tried to pay with change (a roll of dimes – the last I checked it still equaled five dollars). The little man walked away, came back and said, I’m sorry it’s only $3.50 in change – it’s short. Thus effectively accusing me of lying and trying to steal. I calmly looked at him and said it is in no way short, it was $5 and then proceeded to count out the fifty dimes one by one to pay for my meal. The entire time ( as I was quietly fuming) he was huffing behind is little glass.
Now, upon introspection, I realize that I have my own prejudices about people who pay with vast amounts of change. I always think that people who pay with change instead of cash (if they are older than 10) are poor. To be fair, I know that I’m poor and am often counting my pennies and nickels to save up for one thing or another. I feel wealthier when I can pay with cash, and like to pretend that my debit card is an actual credit card (which I don’t allow myself to have because I abuse them – which is a vicious hole that I can’t get out of and don’t want to revisit). And as I’m rolling my coins, I am often tempted to just put in 38 or 39 quarters. But really, to short someone 15 out of 40 dimes. Does the fat woman in the mini van with an old woman and 3 children look like the one who’s going to be running a scam for $1.50?
So, the trip is over. I still have about $15 in rolled change, which I’ll save for Chuck E. Cheese instead I guess.
