Something else is growing old with me: the use of cash for buying stuff.
I don’t care where I go to make purchases – I am the only one in line who jingles coins in my pocket and has dollar bills in my wallet. Everyone else whips out a debit or credit card and waits to sign on the dotted line.
I’m in the drugstore yesterday, picking up some shampoo, toothpaste and a few energy bars (okay, candy bars). The young male clerk, maybe a college student, announces my bill to be sixteen dollars and five cents. I reach into my pocket and pull out a nickel. I take a twenty and a one-dollar bill from my wallet and pass them over to Caleb.
First, he gives me a blank stare. Then Caleb smiles kindly and enunciates slowly, “That’s too much, sir.” Caleb hands me back my nickel and one dollar before reaching into his till to count out ninety-five cents and four one dollar bills.
This transaction takes some time. A line of card-holding customers waits behind me.
What should I do? Is it time for a brief arithmetic lesson?
I take all that change and my four dollars and say, “Thanks Caleb.”