I have this tattoo I got maybe 10 years ago and it got a little smushy looking (it’s on my lower back, so it’s actually not smushy-looking because that body part got smushy-looking, which is always a risk with tattoos) and I went to get it touched up and filled in. I think that may be a Formerly thing–getting tattoos touched up, as opposed to getting tattoos. When you’re a Formerly, it’s all about tattoo maintenance, at least for me. I have no desire to get a new one; I just want the ones I have to not look like my kids grabbed at me with painty hands and I missed a spot in the shower. It hurt every bit as much as I remember, but that’s not the point.
The point is, on the table next to me was this 30something guy with full sleeves, getting an otter (an otter!) etched into the mix of flowers and anchors and what not he had on his forearm. His girlfriend was sitting next to him to keep him company and distract him and they were chatting. There was nobody to distract me so naturally I eavesdropped.
“She writes checks! Like,” and here he slowed his voice down like an old lady and used his free hand to simulate writing with a pen, ” ‘foooorrrty dollars and seventy-five cents,’ like, she writes the whole thing out! And then on the memo line, she writes, ‘groceries!'” Again with the old lady voice. His girlfriend thought that was hysterical.
Encouraged, he continued. “Then she’s all, ‘Wait, I have to write it on the register and deduct the amount from my balance,’ ” he said and looked at her with disbelief. She laughed even harder. “Omigod, like an old person!” she said.
I am not kidding. They weren’t teenagers, either. They were full-on adults, clearly talking about someone who was young enough to know that writing checks, is just, like, cranking up a Victrola to listen to some tunes. Is it just me or are only the elderly writing checks?
Give it to me straight. It’s OK if it is just me you have to tell me that I’m a big old loser and behind the curve on this one. I pay my bills online, but I do write checks, at least a couple a month. I suck at balancing my checkbook and don’t always write things down, but I still think that would be wise. Why is this laughable?
If they’d been kids I’d have dismissed them as ignorant, but he went on to discuss his job and he appeared to be self-supporting. Help me out here. Have checks gone the way of cassette tapes?
May 28, 2011 at 1:06 am
Yes. But ignoring your bookkeeping is idiotic.
May 28, 2011 at 6:42 am
You’re absolutely right. I do make sure everything is at it should be, but not down to the penny and not as often as I should. Honestly, it’s the mix of paying online and check-writing that makes it hard without a spreadsheet. I should start with that.
May 28, 2011 at 9:12 am
I last wrote a check in 2004. Hate the things. Always have. I pay cash, use my debit card, my credit card, online banking & Paypal. Lost of local stores around here stopped taking checks because unlike cash & debit cards, checks bounce.
I’m 43 & most people I know my age do not write checks on a regular basis. The only time the checkbook might come out is a last minute emergency need for a kid’s lunch money with no available cash in the house.
Checks are so 20th century. :0
May 29, 2011 at 8:00 am
I write checks all the time. Probably every day! (Ha! Unfortunately!) I do get the feeling that most people don’t though.
By the way, I turned 45 (yikes!) 2 days ago and I got a tattoo in January with my 18 year old daughter. (which sounds so awful and poor white trash…but it was actually a really nice experience.) I think I paid for it with a check, too!
May 29, 2011 at 12:29 pm
I’ll be 41 in a week and I don’t even own a checkbook. I opened a new account a couple of years ago and still use the starter checks for the 2 or 3 times a year I need to write a check.
May 31, 2011 at 11:51 am
I still write checks occasionally, but I do think the day is coming when they won’t be necessary anymore. I know some people that don’t use them at all now, but I still haven’t figured out how to pay things like my lot rent or occasional doctor bills online. And I also run into places that don’t have card readers every so often (like the little market in the University Center).
I don’t see why it’s laughable to write down the amount in your checkbook register so you actually know how much money you have. I don’t do that when I’m in the store, but that’s only because I have carbons, so I can do it later at home.
I’m 34, so apparently it’s not necessarily an age thing.
June 3, 2011 at 12:37 pm
I have never written even a single check. Somehow in Poland we got straight to credit cards and online banking. If I had seen somebody doing so, I would tell all my friends about it and commented like this – “it was like in the old American movies” 🙂
June 17, 2011 at 9:22 am
hahaha! yes, you are a loser and way behind the curve. I use my debit card primarily, but I do have to write a check or two now and then for the kids school and such. Writing checks in a grocery line holds things up!!