The other day Mrs. G. and I went to a late-afternoon movie, as much to beat the heat as to see the newest “Star Trek” saga. Of course, we needed popcorn, and that found us at the counter talking to a young concession worker, a woman who seemed lost in some inner bliss.
We didn’t realize it initially, but we were about to go where neither of us had gone before — to the other side of the generation gap.
The young worker announced our total and smiled. A silence passed between us, growing more and more uncomfortable until she said, “You can swipe and sign your name now. Use your finger.”
Mrs. G. used her finger to tap the $20 bill she had placed on the counter.
“Oh, cash!” the girl said. “You don’t see that very often.”
I looked at the girl, and my first thought — hand to god, I swear it! — was that I have T-shirts older than her. But I digress.
She took the money and smiled, a transaction that prompted more awkward silence until Mrs. G. said she wanted her change.
“Oh, right, change!” the girl said. “That never happens when people swipe their card.”
We just stared.
The suggestion that we were unfamiliar with the process left us grinding our teeth. We felt sized up, analyzed and dismissed as quaint — an older couple somehow unable to grasp the changing world of technology.
It’s not that we don’t pay for things with a swipe of a credit card or purchase items online. Oh, do we ever.
We’ve grasped the future in our hands, literally. Our smartphones give us access to social media. When Mrs. G. wants to guffaw, she types “lol” and hits the send button. Hey, I once bought a latte with my phone. I have a Bitmoji of myself.
But buying with cash shouldn’t come with a judgment, like it did several years ago in that Visa commercial about the fast-food customer. He enters an assembly line-like world of purchases that moves smoothly because every customer pays with a card swipe. When he hands over cash, chaos erupts.
I didn’t think we were out of sync with society by using cash. And then Mrs. G. reminded me that our 20-something daughters, aka The Little Darlings, have long relied on the swipe of card for everything. When they want to give someone money, she told me, they use an app on their phone.
The generation gap, that catchy phrase from our childhood, seemed to grow wider with each realization.
When we were children, Mrs. G. and I often heard adults bemoaning generational differences that neither of us understood or cared about. Now we’re as old as those adults, and guess what? We still don’t care (much), thank you very much.
But you can always learn something new. It keeps you young or old-school. Either way, you come out ahead.
At the counter, popcorn in hand, we saw the benefits of this maxim in action as we waited for the young woman to count our change.
As she did it, I realized it was something she didn’t do very often.
Reach Mike Gordon at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
