Being Finance Officer of the CAF SoCal Wing I spent a good part of this weekend counting cash. This led to a most curious observation.
Here’s the situation. We have a number of sales sources around our ramp. Some of them (PX with T-shirts, toys, hats, patches, and so on – and the beer/margarita stands) generate a decent amount of sales but it’s mostly electronic, or $10s, $20s, $50s, and $100s if it’s cash. But most of the others (tips, candy, chips, snacks, sodas, water, and especially the aircraft tours) are simple and charge $1. Simple, just drop a dollar bill in the bin and off you go!
Except…
Someone has to count all of that. And to count it you have to unfold and stack and put it all in a format where you can go through it. It’s tedious, it’s time consuming, and it’s a pain in the ass when you can hear the planes flying and the “bombing” explosions and action going on outside.
But here’s the thing.
Having my desk covered with a mangled, messed up, mish-mash of $1 bills (with the occasional $5 or $10), almost everyone coming through the office wants to ooooh and aaaaah and just drool over “ALL THAT MONEY!!!” It’s like Scrooge McDuck frolicking in his hidden lair full of gold coins.
Only these aren’t gold coins. While everyone else is looking at it and obsessing over “CASH!!!” I’m seeing $100, maybe $125. Max.
And the majority of those with that attitude were pilots. Pilots who work for the airlines are are making $200K/year or more, sometimes a LOT more. This money lust that’s taken away their common sense is about what they would pay for dinner with their wives, OR LESS, yet they act like they could use it to go buy a new Ferrari.
It struck me as odd and a bit amusing, so I’m sharing. It’s what I do. Well, that and spend hours unfolding and stacking dollar bills until my hands cramp.
Meanwhile, if you’re tired of being obsessed with the mountainous stack of $1 bills, pull up a chair and start unfolding, stacking, and sorting. I give it fifteen minutes, tops, before you never want to see a $1 bill again.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 
Two thoughts: I’d forgotten you still have $1 dollar bills. Most of the rest of us have long been in coinage for 1 and even 2 pounds, euros, Aussie $ etc.
And then – those that make the most money never actually see it. They don’t touch their filthy lucre, they play with numbers online…
So… aren’t you lucky!!
(I’m hunting around the house for pound coins for my float for next month’s book fair – and some of them are the round ones that went out of circulation in 2015…)
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Believe it or not (and probably 90%+ of Americans wouldn’t) we do have a $1 coin. We got three or four of them at the air show. The government has tried to push them because of the long term cost savings for manufacturing new ones, but EVERYONE (well, except me) hates them. Some places won’t take them, don’t think they’re real. Some government agencies like the post office occasionally get ordered to use them whether folks like it or not, but that rarely lasts long.
We also have a $2 bill – they’ve been around for decades, going back at least to the 50’s, possibly earlier. They’re rare, but we got two of them at the air show this weekend. A royal pain in the ass, but I do really like the artwork on the back, a version of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
But what I REALLY like are the Canadian coins – the “loonie” for $1CDN (because it has a picture of a loon) and the “two-nie” for $2CDN. Who doesn’t love a good money pun?!
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