& your change is …
It’s Labor Day !
& normally, I’d run a repeat of my very first job as a porter at our local bowling alley but, since we’ve all heard that story a time or three … zzzzzzz
So today will be about my second job.
YaY
Still doing my high school thing, Douglas of Douglas Cleaners took a chance on naive, teenage me and my dry cleaning skills. I was the clerk you’d hand your ticket to, the person who would grab your suit or dress off the alphabetized spinning thing, that gal who would take your money and make sure all was swell with your treasured belongings
& yep. It was a pretty nifty gig.
I especially liked the ‘bagging’ setup. Lost in my thoughts, I’d take those clean, freshly pressed clothes and tuck them ever so gently in the plastic covering. The presser guy, who’s name escapes me, was very friendly and we had quite the system. He’d press, press, press. I’d bag, bag, bag and we’d continue this assembly line rhythm until the jing jing jingle of the front door would snap us out of our trance.
Customer !!
I’ll never forget that big, ol cash register that sat right smack dab in the middle of the front counter. The thing was HUGE but, it served it’s purpose. Money in. Money out. All was good and everyone was happy.
Now. We all know Arithmetic has never been one of my best attributes, right ?
It’s true.
& back in the day, those old time cash registers didn’t give you any answers. Nope. A person would hand over a five dollar bill and brain power would tell me what to do next and most days ?? my math phobia and I were fine. I could handle the .25 of life and almost all of the change I would hand back would be quarters.
whew
But there was that one guy on that one day that walked into Douglas Cleaners and rocked my world. The day I had to make REAL change, changed everything.
His grand total = $5.41.
& he handed me $20.00
Yes, I stood there as my brain began it’s freeze.
errrr
uhhhh
oh boy
& you know what that kind human being did ?? He took the time to teach this completely baffled kid the proper technique to making change.
“Count up” he said. 4 pennies will get you to .45, a nickel will take you to .50, two quarters and you’re at $6.00, four dollar bills equals $10.00, another ten and we’re at $20.00. See ? You owe me $14.59.
& TA DA !!!! I’m telling you, it was an Epiphany !!
weeeeee.
Life doesn’t offer many cold, hard cash opportunities anymore but, I’ve happily used and carried that priceless information around with me for a whole lotta years and to this day, when I walk into any dry-cleaners, I think of that nice, change making man and how he calmed my confused self.
Douglas Cleaners. Job #2.
ahhhh, the memories and ohhhh, the life skills !!
🙂
