Could you all do me a favor? Chastise me if I go on one of my these-damn-kids-today benders again anytime soon.
We went to see X3 Monday night. At the ticket booth, a sign warned that the theater's ATM was down. The boyfriend and I failed to derive from that what the cashier then told us: All card activity was suspended.
"Cash only!" he barked at my boyfriend. I forgave him for his surliness when it dawned on me that he'd probably been explaining this problem to customers all night long. It's hard to be polite the 45th time you bear bad news to people.
I fumbled in my purse but came up with only $9. Neither of us carry cash much anymore. It's all debit card action around here.
That's when a young guy somewhere between his junior year of high school and his sophomore year of college (there was a time I could have estimated his age to the year, but that was before I got old) pushed between us to hand the cashier a twenty, saying to my boyfriend, "It's cool, man, I got it."
Then he handed us the tickets.
Then I fell over dead.
We tried working out a deal with him in which my boyfriend would run across the street to an ATM; I tried giving him the paltry $9; we tried selling ourselves into his indentured servitude, but this kid would have none of it.
"Really, man, it's all right! I've been in this situation before myself."
And then he and his girlfriend rushed into the theater, away from the crazy old people with their strange obsession about money, dude.
"Do you suppose he was on Ecstasy?" I asked the boyfriend.
"Oh, could be," he replied.
"Do you know what this means?"
"What?"
"I am officially in favor of legalizing Ecstasy*."
"And subsidizing it."
"Ecstasy grants."
"Fixed-interest Ecstasy loans."
"Three words: FREE ECSTASY CLINIC."
So thank you, strange kid at the theater. Whether you have a big heart or were just stoned out of your mind, we love you.
*Actually, I'm in favor of legalizing most street drugs.
Posted by Ilyka at June 7, 2006 12:07 PM in navel gazingGood on him. I watched in disbelief as a 20yr old turned in a wallet at a restaurant with $900 in cash and 12-15 credit cards in it. I'm not afraid to grow old. The younger ones coming up can take over.
As a debit card fanatic, myself, I can surely relate. Since we have to drive about 30 miles to the nearest theater, we always buy our tickets online ahead of time but I think I'd be out of luck if the machines went down even with our printed confirmation.
Posted by: Rob at June 7, 2006 01:30 PMIlyka, no way was that kid in high school.
Of course you realize now what you have to do: Pay it forward.
Posted by: Meryl Yourish at June 7, 2006 03:03 PMDon't you remember when X was legal? Neither do I, but I have a few older partyin' cousins in Houston that do.
Posted by: norbizness at June 7, 2006 07:21 PMThe kids are alright, we just hear nothing but the bad.
Posted by: The Holywriter at June 7, 2006 08:02 PMSign that you're officially old:
You attribute random acts of kindness from kids to DRUGS.
*snicker*
THAT is a cool story.
Norbizness, I remember when it was legal--or at least I think it was, considering in 1984 it was the preferred spike of choice in frat party jungle juice. (Not that I'd know, I didn't touch the jungle juice!)
Also it wasn't all that long ago (10 years, maybe?) that it was legal in DC because some idiotic city bureaucrat f'd up and had the acronym as "MAMD" or something inane when The Law was published. So it was technically not illegal because of it! (Morons!)
People in general are better than we give them credit for sometimes. Just my experiences.
Posted by: Freeman at June 9, 2006 07:42 AM