I went up to the local barbecue place (Smokey Mo’s, Junior, the one in Leander across from the boneyard on Bagdad) to get a couple of pounds of chopped beef to slap on hamburger buns and there was an old geezerly dood in line in front of me afflicting everybody in the place with his unprovoked, unsolicited and unappreciated friendliness like inconsiderate old bastards like to do.
When they rang up his order, he asked twice how much it was and started getting real excited practically jumping up and down on one leg. Then he said what I knew he was going to say - “I believe I have the exact change.”
So dood unloads everything from his pockets. A key ring holding every key he had ever used in his life, a very fat wallet containing every business card, receipt and photo anybody had ever given him, a peppermint, a pocketknife, a tire gauge, a spark pluge and $11.78 in quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies.
I know for a fact it was $11.78 because he painstakingly counted it out four times and his order was $12.78.
When he finally pulled out the old debit card he was a whupped pup who probably hated everybody in the place for not saying something like, “Here pop, have a dollar.”
But hell, I only get dollars when I want to tip the green van driver at Fast Park or the egg cooker at Embassy Suites.
This ain’t 1964. Who the hell carries money?