I think I found my mother’s twin today!  Right in my back yard.  Well, actually —kind of in my front yard diagonally and about half a mile.  Still with me?   I had to go get some goodies to start preparations for my fabulous lunch of White Bean Swiss Chard soup for my main squeeze so I headed out to HyVee.  Now our HyVee has the great practice of giving the customer 5 cents credit for each and every bag that they bring in to use.  I have quite a collection of these fabulous bags since that is basically all that was used in Australia.  I am pretty sure that I am the only person in Mason City with a Woolworth’s reusable green bag.  Today I took a few in with me for the items that I needed.  And that is where it gets interesting.

I decided to check out in the older cashier’s line.   We will call her Lilly.  Lilly is a sweet lady—kind of a fixture at my neighborhood HyVee and one that is very careful  when she handles your produce and bread.  Not like some of these young whippersnappers who make me cringe as they toss my carefully selected items down on the belt.   Anyway, Lilly is a little slower than some of the other cashiers but it is because 1. she is talking all the while she is checking you out and 2. she is looking at your items carefully to make sure that she has the right scan and code.  Customer service at its best.  Sometimes it is worth a little extra time and attention and today I was up for being in Lilly’s line.

All checked out and groceries bagged, debit card approved and almost on my way and she realizes that she did not credit me for my 3 reusable bags.  Horror of horrors!!!   I told her “no worries” but oh no….that was not the way that this was going to go down!   She proceeds to get her personal change purse out —dumps it out on the belt and starts searching through the dollar bills, assorted change, paper clips, bobby pins and buttons for the 15 cents that I am owed.  Of course there was not the correct change.  She starts counting pennies.  The line behind me is forming.  I am saying “Please–forget it.”   But no…she finds a dime and thinks she has a nickel but it looks funny.  She said “I don’t know what this is but you can have it if you want.”   I acquiesced as I was sure that if I didn’t I would be there until dinner time.  When I got home I looked at the coin and found that it was indeed 5 cents ….from Panama.  Now since I do not have Panama as a place to visit on my bucket list I am thinking this at least will give me a taste!

My mother is so like this.  If she needs a stamp she will pay me for it.  Even back in those days when stamps cost a fraction of what they cost today.  I love my Mother and this is definitely not a criticism (she does read my blog after all—how could I ever criticize a faithful follower?) .  It is an observation of how maybe our generation is much more casual about “debt” than her generation.

And by the way—the exchange rate for Panama money is equal to US so it’s all good.  Whew.   Can’t think that I would have gotten cheated out of my bag money!!!    Happy Saturday!