Most of you
are probably too young to remember a time without ATMs. As it turns out I remember all too well. When they were first installed there was a
total mistrust of them. It was okay for you to take money from one but you
NEVER gave money to one… at least I didn’t.
I went into the bank and gave it to someone I could look in the eye…
never, never to a machine. Now I’m as
forward thinking as any and as time went by I relented and began to put in
checks. That was a long time ago. Now, I
use one without hesitation but in the back of my head I still have a little something
were giving money to a machine is concerned.
As often as possible I like to put in cash, turning it front to back,
mixing 1’s with 20’s and every combination I can think of. It’s not much but it tickles me. It’s my way
of saying “screw you” to the
machine.
It whirls,
clicks and makes all the noises imaginable as it counts, separates and then
double checks… then right at the end the noises stop. For a brief moment all is
quite… and then it spits out one lousy,
wrinkled dollar bill saying “No! Screw you!”