This morning I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a couple of things, and got behind an attractive older woman who was the only customer at the only open register. Like me, she had a small basket of groceries. Her purchases amounted to $12.48, but she had a coupon she wanted to redeem, and eventually fished it out from the bottom of her handbag.

She had also pulled out an envelope that contained a debit card; it had just come in the mail, and as she had never used a debit card before, she wanted to try it out. The helpful little checkout girl came from around the counter and patiently explained how it worked. After several futile attempts to complete the transaction, they determined that the card would have to be activated by a telephone call before it could be used. There were now four people in the line.

Our customer then had to dig around in her pocketbook for a while longer before unearthing her wallet. She carefully counted all of her bills and all of her change before announcing that since she had paid her yardman the afternoon before, she needed to go to the bank to cash a check.

More fumbling around in her purse produced a checkbook. She slowly wrote it out, and then painstakingly entered all of the pertinent information into the check register. Finally, she tore it out and handed it with a flourish to the poor cashier, who at this point was franticly trying to find someone else to come open another register. She gathered up her belongings and her small bag of groceries, then turned to her audience, now an eight-deep line of impatient customers, and said with a laugh,"Get over it. I'm an old lady."