Member-only story
Cashing in Your Change
Are you embarrassed?
When I was a young man, I shared a flat with a friend. We were both smokers at the time, and one night we didn’t have a cigarette between us. There was a filling station just across the road, which was open until 11.00 pm, and tobacco products could be obtained from there. We chipped in with what money we had, but we were well short of what was required for ten cigarettes.
We did have one form of currency, though, which, when added to our coins, would give us sufficient capital for our smoking venture. We had a bag full of empty pop bottles, each of which had a deposit of seven pence paid upon it. Redeeming those would give us enough for cigarettes, and even some gum. But there was a problem.
Returning Empty Bottles
Neither of us wanted to go through the embarrassment of cashing in empties for cigarettes, as we were both known to the young woman who served at the kiosk. Each of us dug in, pretending that we weren’t too bothered about getting cigarettes, while in reality we were both gasping for one. Finally, after a stand-off as intense as that in True Romance, I caved in at five to eleven, and I took the clink of shame to the kiosk.
Of course, there’s not really any shame in returning empty bottles for their deposits, but we were young then, and image…
