Those of you who follow my other blog know that Mrs. HM's alter ego has a penchant for picking up pennies. Any coins. Collects them for good luck. This week, the floors and parking lots of convenience stores were bereft of coinage. As bare as Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard.
I THINK I KNOW WHY!
Friday, I had the misfortune of arriving at The Gas Station Chicken Store when school let out. Three young softball-jersey-wearing gals strode in the door on their youthful legs right ahead of me. Well. You know what THAT means! A wait at the soda fountain. High school youth work up a powerful thirst sitting in a classroom, absorbing those dry facts.
They were perfectly polite, and tidy in their fountaining. Of course they all got 44 oz of their own magical elixirs. Up front, one gal paid for her friend's beverage. They moved aside for the last gal to pay. They were in a hurry to go drive around until their parade started. That last gal, paying for her $1.69 soda, handed the clerk two dollars. She turned to leave, and said, "Keep the change."
WHAT IN THE NOT-HEAVEN???
The clerk waved the dollars at her. "Are you SURE?"
"Yep. Keep the change."
Our eyes met as I bellied up to the counter, and he stashed the bills in the register. We nodded.
"Parents' money! She'll learn."
How am I supposed to harvest my Pennies (and dimes and nickels and quarters) From Heaven if careless youth don't even drop them? These young whippersnappers need to learn how their actions affect others!
Those hooligans are rude, thoughtless kids. All they thihk of is the store employees. Perhaps if you created a public service announcement, encouraging teens to toss pennies--here and there--whenever they make a purchase, that might work?
ReplyDeleteSioux,
ReplyDeleteI could do that. IF I wanted my ample rumpus showing up all over the innerets, as they lay in wait for me to harvest that crop.
She will learn for sure, when it's her own hard-earned, she'll be counting every penny of her change. I remember those days. I still count my change and keep my budget book up to date.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteYes, it's different when you have to work for it. I remember Genius's outrage at the withholding on his first paycheck, during his paid internship during his second year of college. What a shock for that sheltered young fellow!
You should have warned him.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteI think I did my parental duty with a bit of foreshadowing when Genius first announced his "co-op," as they called such an internship at his college. Of course, Genius knew it all, and didn't want to hear it. His next great awakening came when he got the real job, and started paying his own car insurance.