wearmanyhats

A young couple sat with the grizzled old man in the small parlor of his house.  The young man was cool, but nervous; it was never easy to ask for money.  “I’m figuring I’ll need it until I sell out the pigs at market in the fall,” he explained. 

The old man stroked his beard thoughtfully, then nodded.  “I’ll go get the money,” he said, getting up and walking toward the door.  “Wait here, ” he added, just before the door shut. 

 The couple waited until the man returned with two dirty canning jars of bills.  They watched as he unscrewed the jar lids, and a rank smell permeated the room. It was a mixture of wet dirt, bills that had gotten wet and never fully dried, and stale air.  He carefully counted out the bills to the couple, and they left later.  The debt was paid up early, much to dismay of the lender.  He had wanted the interest badly, the young man remembered, years later.

But it was the smell, the smell  of that rotting money and wet dirt that lingered forever with both of the borrowers.  Sixty years later, they both could instantly remember the smell, as if the jars were sitting in front of them.

Now we look back on that and chuckle, shake our heads in amazement.  But imagine, what would you do if you were in the shoes of the news announcer who spoke to the interviewing reporter about the Indymac bank run.  He lamented not being able to check his balance online,and he and his wife could only take out $200 one day during Saturday.  On Sunday, the ATM wouldn’t dispense them any money at all.  And Monday, while others waited in line, he and his wife were at work, wondering if their life savings would be forever gone.

What would you do if you suddenly had to take out thousands of dollars?  Put it in another bank?  Stuff it in the mattresses?  Bury it in jars in the back yard? It’s a sobering thought when you consider the following bits of information: Indymac was not on the list that the FDIC has of banks to watch for failure, so putting your money into other institutions may only spread the risk around.  Stuffing wads of cash holds the risk of fire and burglary.  Putting cash in a bank box is all right as long as the bank will allow you to go into the vault to get at it.  Suddenly planting jars of cash in the back yard is not so extreme.

Or maybe its the times we live in that have become exteme.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS