A fairly
constant string of dancers keep wandering past the gate, proffering paper currency
to pass the gate.
The bills
come in fresh and crisp from the ATM or the bank. The new ones are sticky and
must be handled carefully to keep them separate. Others come in crumpled and near the end of
their serviceable life as currency.
There is a
surprising variation in how money is passed from hand-to-hand. Most people who paid admission last night
made some attempt at having the correct amount for admission. The $5.00 member/student price was generally
handed to me as a single $5.00 bill. A smaller
percentage needed change. These folks
usually offered their currency in the unfolded condition. They received change in the same manner.
Others came
with a pile of singles and handed them to me folded. OCD is not yet common enough to cause them to
align their bills in a stack with all bills having the same face upward. Yet most places that take cash in payment
teach their employees to separate and align bills in a cash box or register drawer. Lessons learned are easily forgotten or,
perhaps, ignored out of some need to rebel at the smallest opportunity.
Most annoying:
Last night’s
prize is awarded to the young woman who extended a closed fist and then turned
it downward, dumping a tangled, lump of four intertwined bills with four
quarters in the mix. She made no apology
for the tangle. The bills were damp,
torn, and generally unpleasant to pick up and separate. Once the bills left her hand, she rushed away
as if offended at being asked to pay. She
wasn’t carrying a purse of any sort. I have no idea where that money had been
prior to arriving at the dance. It left me recalling what I know of viral and
bacterial transmission by fomites. Good
hand-washing skills pay off. There’s a
reason clinical lab folks wash their hands about 200 times a day.
You should
too!
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