One day last week I wrote a cheque to pay for a retired teachers’ event. I noticed that it was number 97 in my book of 100 cheques. Oops – time to order new ones. I’d better hurry.
Then I thought about it. When was the last time I had written a cheque? It was to the same retired teachers’ group for an event about 6 months ago! These events are run by older volunteers and the registration is done the old-fashioned way: Send a cheque by snail mail to the registrar who makes a list in a notebook. Probably she puts the cheques in an envelope at the back of her lingerie drawer for safekeeping. When you arrive at the event she checks your name off a list with a pen.
I certainly plan to attend a few more of these events, so I need more cheques. But I have forgotten how to order them. It has been ages since I last did it. What address should I put on them? And how many do I need? At this rate, 100 cheques would last me well through my next home, and maybe even my own expiry.
When I think about it, almost all of my expenses are paid online through accounts set up in advance, or by credit card. Most stores where I make purchases prefer credit cards to cash. Clerks don’t want to waste time waiting while I count out dimes and quarters from my wallet and then stop to pick up the ones I dropped on the floor. Or they don’t want to deal with the hassle of changing a $50 bill as customers pile up behind.
In fact, many places where Peter and I spend money are cashless. All Mirvish theatres, the Rogers Centre, and other large event venues take credit cards only, even for an overpriced $4 bottle of water, or our favourite, Hagen Daas ice cream bars, another $6.50 each to our credit cards. It’s easy to see why people are apoplectic when their monthly bill arrives. How could they have possibly consumed $54 worth of lattes at Starbuck’s in just four weeks?
Most restaurants want and expect a credit card. This way the waiters can lead you to that awkward moment where they stand nearby as you debate what number to punch in on the tip screen. They don’t want to accept a handful of change which looks and feels very generous, but, back in the kitchen, they find it’s all dimes and nickels.
Transportation and parking are other places where credit cards are king. Remember the old-fashioned parking meters where you put in a quarter and turned a little crank? Now parking meters require at least a university degree to fill in the questions, check all the right boxes, run back to your car to read your license plate number, and then tap your card. On all public transit in Ontario a PRESTO card is required. This is the same as a credit card, except you pay ahead. No PRESTO Card? No go. Even if you are going out of zone, for example to Hamilton, nowhere is there a slot for a cheque.
One problem with this change in how we pay, is that the other kind of change tends to accumulate in purses and pockets. And there’s nowhere to spend it. My purse gets heavier and heavier as the nickels add up. What to do with all this cash? The other day, as I looked in a store at all the Hallowe’en candy for sale, I had an idea. Would the kids like money instead?
Sure they would! They could have fun counting it up. They’d get a break from sugar and additives. Maybe they could give it to UNICEF or another charity. And I would have a terrible burden lifted from my shoulders.
Sue
PS Book Launch: Saturday November 7th 3-5 pm
194 Park Lawn Ave
The Ultimate Adventure: Aging In the 21st Century
Book sale, book exchange, refreshments.
Hope you can join me.
