Noticing the Little Things...

I was in the lineup at the Pharmamart drug store in the basement of the Bay, at the Rideau Centre, when I caught myself chuckling at the sight of a lady paying for her purchases.

She paid with a fifty-dollar bill.

Good 'old 50: crisp, red, and emblazoned with that dominant figure in Canadian political history, the Right Honorable William Lyon Mackenzie King, whose intelligence, aptitude and penchant for political longevity was offset by his regular consultations with the spirits of his mother and dog, Pat, among others. In Canada, we like our politicians flawed, the more tragically human the better.

I realized in that instant that I actually hadn't seen a fifty-dollar bill in years. Once they were relatively commonplace, for those who had particularly generous relatives around birthday time.

But, with the prevalence of the electronic age and ATM banking, you just don't see that particular bill anymore.

One can infer the following:

The lady must be old. (and she was) Older people are distrustful of machines. They'd prefer to deal with a person. I know this, because when I actually have to conduct some banking via teller, which is rare enough, I see these people in line in front of me conducting the most basic of banking transactions.

Since you can't actually get $ 50 dollar bills from ATMs anymore, (20s only, with 10s if you're lucky), she'd undoubtedly walked to the bank as a part of her routine, withdrawing her money for shopping in the time-honored fashion.

One wonders how long it's viable to keep producing bills that have declined so significantly in circulation.