Earlier today I had a rather sad epiphany. I was doing household chores and while getting all the washing ready for the laundry, I diligently went through the pockets of all the garments and well, it just isn't as fun now as it was in the good old days.
I can remember exultant cries of jubilation when my fingers touched paper. Not any sort of paper...the money kind of paper. It has it's very own texture and it's one that can't be mistaken for another. My fingertips would do a happy little dance as soon as I fumbled amongst the various other odds and ends but came across treasure. I used to call it "the laundry lady's pay day" and I'd tax those who it belonged to because well, they should know better. Most of the time though, it was my own money that simply got forgotten in pockets along the way and would patiently sit there waiting for laundry day.
These days? Well, it's kind of boring and rather flat to be honest. If I had kids I would make an effort to draw cash and whenever one of them did the washing, I'd sneak in some pocket money just for funzies, but these things aren't meant to pass down it seems.
We're heading towards a cashless society. A decade ago I still paid for most of my groceries in cash and card transactions were kept for mostly the bigger ticket items. Now days, you're lucky if you can amass enough cash to buy a month's groceries, it's just not used that much. I find it sad because cash is in it's own way part of the heritage of our lands, of our time. Whenever notes would change over to new ones, it was an exciting thing and the old notes would be hoarded by those thinking perhaps they would become collector's items. Now? They're simply forgotten like so much of our history - left to the dust.
It's things like this that I will miss because it's all well and good to think it doesn't have too much of an impact, but a lot of the maths that I learned as a kid was based on buying sweets from the local shop on the corner and knowing how much they were, how many coins I had and how much I expected to get in change. These days are kids getting that experience? Are they seeing money for the lower denominations being copper and the higher denominations being a metal of more value? How much is being lost in translation to the digital dollar?
It's very much like the digital age that has all but made the postage stamp become obsolete. Need to send a letter? Send an e-mail. Want to send a postcard? Send an e-card. But is it the same?
No.
There's nothing quite like licking a postage stamp, putting it onto a handwritten something or other and sticking it through that dimensional portal in the postbox and waiting 3 weeks for the person on the other side to receive it.
Perhaps I'm just old fashioned, but I just feel like life is becoming sanitized of all these cool little nuances that I used to enjoy and being replaced with a very bland computer version of real life.
Are kids ever going to play marbles with their friends or are they too busy posting selfies to placate their dopamine addiction for the day in the form of like collecting?
Perhaps I'm just trying to hang onto nostalgia of yesteryear, but I'm telling you now, I'm going to make sure that my niece gets to experience finding a $5 note while lint diving for treasure and the rapturous delight of stamp licking and curling up your lip at the taste of the sticky sweetsour gum while whisking off your postcard to a distant relative. Because these things are fun and this new era just isn't.
Let's bring the fun back. What do you guys think? Feel free to tell me in the comments.
The image was taken by me
I remember finding a fifty dollar note in a pocket once, a garment I'd not worn for months and months. It felt like I'd won the lottery and I spent it on gummy bears and chocolate.
OK, not really, I think I put some diesel in my truck with it and celebrated my free fuel as I did so.
I've not found anything so wondrous in my jeans pockets prior to washing lately, but a couple weeks ago my entire wallet went through the wash so someone wasn't pocket diving effetively.
$50? What a win! Lol @ gummybears, not a bad choice although diesel is a good second choice too.
Your entire wallet? That's like hitting the jackpot. You would learn quickly to not forget it, I'd tax the crap out of that 🤣
Yep, my whole wallet. I dried everything off and the money that was in there (2x $5 notes) is polymer so there was no damage there. The wallet was a bit wet and limp like a...like a...(best not to leave a simile here I think). The wallet was wet and limp.
I'd expect the Emma Tax on it had you found it so I'm glad that didn't come to pass.
Oh dear, there's nothing worse than a wet, limp wallet. I'm glad your cash was safe from the Emma tax, you should have celebrated with a free donut 😄
No one wants a limp wallet. Fortunately mine went hard again and is now operating as per normal. I had a donut to celebrate.
Emma I read your post and I remember those great moments where going through my pockets I got my prize cash, constant and sound money and it was a party that said " Today I am rich , rich" hahahahaha memorable times , and everything you mention has changed everything now we just have to accept what long ago escaped from our hands , our habits are still atomic in learning the new and the greatest thing is that despite so much technology we have the ability and the privilege to maintain our sensitivity , our human connection .☮️
I agree with your sentiment that holding onto the human connection is so important in times when we are becoming more disconnected even though we are more interconnected technologically. Keeping our humanity is going to be the thing to see us through this transition.
Thank you again for your valuable comment, it's very much appreciated
Big hugs 🌼
My best friend had left me for another city and there were no phones in my country then. We usually write to ourselves. But we sent the letters through anyone we knew that was going in either of our directions. The delight I had in reading her letters was next to none. We were just children then, so we used pencils to write long and heartwarming tales of everything that had been going on before after the previous letter. When the phones came, everything changed. I guess it was because we could reach each other at any time so we didn't feel as excited. I still miss those letter writing days.
Hi Unomi
I remember those days so well. I wrote a lot of letters with funky handwriting to class mates, penpals in my country and beyond, it was good fun and always even better to receive one back. Nobody really does it anymore, but I'd love to bring this back to life, taking the time and effort to write a letter by hand is a true expression of love and care.
Thanks for reminiscing with me on the days gone by. Maybe you should look your friend up and send her a letter as a keepsake.
I'm currently pretty close to her by location but we will be far apart soon. I will leave her a letter before leaving. Thank you for the lovely idea.
Awww that's awesome. I'm glad you guys weren't too far, at least you can rekindle this old method of keeping in touch. Made my day to read this.
Awnnnnnn!
I'm so sorry for my late reply. It's so sweet to think that I made someone's day. Thank you so much.