(picture of a cat)
.here I am in Eugene, Oregon, on the phone to my bank (the names have been changed to protect the innocent bank) and I am trying to get a hold of an agent ,Dodge the telephone robot, but it doesn’t work. She wants to know all this information.
“What is your card number?” I tell her. “What is your checking account number?” I tell her again. What is your debit card number again?” I give it to her again.”what is your pin number?”I give that to her. “What is the last four numbers of your Social Security card?” I give that to her. “What is your phone number?” I give that to her and yawn.
“What is your address?” I give that to her, verbally. “What is your name?” I give her my name and some local swearing..”what is your weight?” I really give her some local swearing, and fudge the number on my weight. “How tall are you?”
At this point I’m getting really exasperated. “What was the last name of your mother’s maiden name, and the last maiden name of your grandmother by your mother?” She is very lucky. I happen to know the whole thing, and yes, there are some Jews in their, and other things I don’t want to talk about. FRENCH. Maybe some African-American; let’s see what else? They were in the Civil War.
Oh,and the blueblood of the Revolutionary war, and also some Amish and Mennonite, to settle it, on my dad’s side..but I really don’t think that rumor about my dad’s family is true, and that there is Cherokee in it.maybe Little Sioux Indian. Not much.
“agent– agent –agent– agent – –” I start mollifying this machine, and give her own stuff back. And she picks up on it and says, “please hold while I get an agent for you.” (“And while you’re at it, why don’t you dip yourself in motor oil, and go back to the Middle East, sweetie!”)
but the most embarrassing thing when I go to the bank, or when I call them up, (I hate doing online banking because I know a bunch of hackers, and really nasty criminals online, that exist, and they can hack into your account in two seconds, and find out every single thing and every number, and every piece of info. and money you’ve got.if the federal government can’t hold off the hackers, how can I?) – – The most embarrassing thing when I talked to a banker, is saying this:
“no, I would not like to talk about you giving me a loan. We don’t do that in my family.”there is a pause from the banker, and she asks,” what do you mean?” I answer, “we don’t do that in my family; we don’t take out LOANS. If we don’t have the money, to pay for it, We don’t buy it.”
there is an audible gasp from the other end of the line. Once again, I have terrified a bank agent, and surprised the hell out of them, that anything like that exists in America. I am embarrassed to death, and she can’t see me blushing and turning bright purple. This happens all the time. I guess I had better get used to it.
“What I mean is, my family was very old-fashioned and frugal, and they worked hard and saved all their money, and invested it, and they only bought things that they could pay for. We don’t believe in getting lots of loans and we don’t go around with lots of credit cards.” There was another audible gasp, and coughing, at the other end, I had gone over the line with this poor banker.it was true that my sister had a mortgage, on her nice little old, overpriced home in California, but that was unusual for my family.
But I did not like to talk to bankers, or any kind of financial people, and admit this horrible truth about my nuclear family. We did not go around getting loans and borrowing money. We did not go around using credit cards unless we absolutely had to (I believe that my sister at one time had to have a credit card, just to buy stuff for identification or something? She was a lot more modern, and she had to put up with all that financial guff.) But the rest of my family, Just did not do that.
And I had been poor, A lot of my life, and the one time I had a Macy’s card, it took me a whole year to pay off $85 worth of makeup. It just was not worth it. It certainly was not. My sister had said, “go ahead and get a Macy’s card, so you can establish credit.” What credit? Poor people don’t have any credit! They want cash from us! Besides that, if I were middle class and made a lot of money, or just had some money, and they would give me credit cards,it would go against my family tradition.
Very poor people and very poor families have this tradition; you can’t buy anything unless you have the dough. Nobody let us get away with inflating the economy, that’s for wealthy people to do. But the poor and the poor– working? No way, they don’t let us inflate the economy that’s only for the billionaires and the upper-middle-class, and especially for THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
So it was very embarressing, when people at parties or any social gatherings, found out that I didn’t use credit cards, I didn’t get loans, that my family actually owned the tiny house I lived in, and stuff like that, and there was never a mortgage on it, I would be embarrassed right into the next celestial world. people looked at me very oddly, when I said that our family built the house themselves.
they looked at me, as if I were from another world. And they probably all thought I was a Mennonite.
Not true; also, I do not belong officially to the Lubavitcher Chabad, or the Amish. – – Although I do go on the Lubavitcher Chabad website, and read, and talk to, and discuss things with them, because I think they’re pretty smart, and I respect them.
I don’t think they would let me in their organization. Too many weird things, too many weird people in my background.but then, who were they to Judge? One of those Chabad organizations, believes that in the future, technology and the metaphysics of the celestial world, and God, will merge together, and somehow work together.
Sounds logical. That’s okay. But to the rest of the world, it’s as weird as not using loans, and not using credit cards, and not using mortgages if we don’t have to..– and building your own house from scratch.
(Take that, Jimmy Carter. I hope you feel a whole lot better, but you know how the big C is.)
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I continued to the agent, “are you okay?” She stopped, coughing and gasping, and I could hear her drinking some water. “It’s all right, we bankers have to – – put up with a lot – –” and we ended our little financial session, and I apologized for shocking her so badly.”I really am sorry,” I continued, that happens to a lot of people, when I tell them.” She was a little standoffish, and very stolidly said, thank you very much, have a nice day.” – Like she couldn’t stand, to get off the phone, and I would infect her over the telephone wires.
oh well.
I’ll have to stop just telling people, cold like that, without giving them some kind of warning, and telling them that my family actually does that; avoids getting mortgages, mostly, doesn’t use credit cards, and doesn’t use loans. Not that we wouldn’t like to, but we’d rather not get into debt, along with the rest of the country and the government,it’s just very old-fashioned of us. And I like being that way. But it’s horrendously embarrassing, it shocks the hell out of everybody.
it’s the way that people used to be, if they found out you were gay; but now it’s wonderful to be gay, and it is NOT WONDERFUL, to be frugal, save your money, invest it, and not live beyond your income.
if I said out loud that I was a lesbian, that would be great. But the way I am, in reality? I dare not speak the name of shame. FRUGAL. TIGHT. CHEAP. SAVING. That last one is really horrible.I’ve actually seen people faint in front of me.
too bad there isn’t another country with people just like me that I could move to, and get out of this stupid fucking, financial ,CRAP, that I live in, called the United States of America; whose first religious indoctrination is in using credit, using loans, using mortgages, and not worrying about getting into debt.– – which of course is why we are now owned by China, and probably the World Bank, if I remember rightly.
and if the Chabad in any branch of it, are anything like me, I would probably join them right now, (except that I just can’t stand wearing that much black! It reminds me of New York City ) but I think even they are too modern to accept me, the way I am.
and forget the Amish, I really am too old and broken down physically, to start learning how to do everything by hand, again. As much as I like their quilting designs, they remind me of the ones from the Pennsylvania Dutch, back east where my dad’s family came from. 
I’ll just have to remain the anachronism that I am, but try not to blurt it out, too much, in public without warning, so I don’t give the next person a heart attack. Nobody probably suspects that there are any of us left, we Puritans of finances, creaky, cheap, frugal, and definitely watching our bottom line. 
the worst thing of all is, I am definitely not supporting the federal government standards, and belief systems, and I am probably what’s known as a “radical terrorist” in that respect. It makes me sick when I watch old movies, and they talk about all the gold in Fort Knox, (that was a James Bond movie).I just almost get sick to my stomach, it just sounds so great. Sigh. 
(SANDRAMINADOTTY, THAT RADICAL FINANCIAL TERRORIST, going against every known principal of the known modern world, especially in America; where socialism is believed to be able to CREATE MONEY without any kind of BUSINESS or production of any kind, and Capitalism is a dirty word . 
If anyone knows of the principled financial country, I have requested to find, above, please leave a comment below, and I may definitely consider emigrating; or at least vacationing there. Who knows, maybe the left over cannibals of New Guinea are the only ones cause they build their own grass huts, and don’t have mortgages on em.) 😉 🙂 
Even Oregon doctors agree,”Hey, man, this is happening food! You diabetics and food-allergy people can eat ANY &
Caroline replied..”Yes,”i said, throwing my phone thru the air, barely missing the cat.”‘And since the guy sent me an email, with his email address,.I tried to phone the cyber-terrorist line, in WA DC, where they hog all your taxes,WA DC, HEE HEE!–
AND when I gave them the guy’s email, the website, and told them the guy got all my personal ID, THE WOMAN ON THE CYBER-TIP-LINE KEEPS HANGING UP ON ME!”
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WHATTODOWHILETHEPLANETDIES" 