The Great American Check Exchange!
By Bobby Wallinger
Many years ago one of my favorite humorists wrote a marvelous piece on the fact there actually existed only ONE FRUITCAKE in the United States of America and that it was given and re-given, aka “re-gifted” year after year after year.
The premise not unlike six degrees of separation indicated that NO ONE in the U.S.A. liked fruitcake and therefore absolutely no one ever ate it. Now for a first generation American coming from a family of a Scot and an Irishman, I considered this the equivalent of flag burning.
Whom I wondered could not possibly LOVE fruitcake. And in our family, our mother, all the aunts, and my sister lovingly created fruitcake early in October pouring a wee bit O’ the booze over it every two weeks assuring not only a flavorful dessert for the holidays but in our household cutting down on the need for after dinner drinks as well.
But alas, that was then and now my only chance to bite into the delicious treat is limited to that given me by my sister or buying one of the tasteless morsels sold in many stores under the pseudonym, “fruitcake”. The truth is most of these products “looks like a picture and tastes like one too”!
Nevertheless, it does make for a good piece of humor and granted there are enough folks in my acquaintance who would hardily agree they never encountered a fruit cake they were willing to cut let alone taste.
Well it was this concept of the re-gifting that brought me to consider the concept of the, “One Check Exchange”.
It has come to my attention that if all the people who support charities and non-profits via the giving of a check would simply put those checks in a giant envelope there would really be only one or two folks who do not receive a check from someone else with the proceeds going to their favorite cause or charity.
Are you getting the fruitcake tie-in? An example of this was my recent tour of duty selling tickets to a fund raiser at our church. This, I might add, was following my masterful campaign in selling tickets to “Steel Magnolias” a theatre production by Community Theatre of Linden. Since this is a fledgling theatre company, I began hawking my wares, where else? But at Stockton Civic Theatre where I have spent many joyful years on both sides of the footlights.
No problem selling there…the easiest people on earth to sell tickets to a show are directors, performers, and stage crew of another company. And, of course, I was only too eager to become a sponsor for SCT. “Tit for Tat” so to speak. As I continued selling the tickets for the fund raiser at church, I soon discovered for every two tickets I sold, I was buying two tickets for either another church’s fundraiser, raffle tickets for a non-profit fund-raiser, books, cookies, baskets and wine completed the item list of things I purchased from others as they purchased from me.
Just for fun, I did some comparison check distribution and discovered both to my surprise and delight, that I had written out checks to the tune of $218.00 and sold $224.00 worth of tickets. So clearly while I did come out ahead, it might have been easier on all of us, the sellers and “sellees” if we had each just written a check to the cause of our choice and saved the time used to communicate our salesmanship needs to our friends.
But would I have it any other way? NO WAY! I love the fact that
so many members of our community are out there providing goods and
services to the many members of our community who need a hand.
Way to go Stockton…America’s most Generous City.
So the next time a friend hits you up to buy a “something”, just make sure you have a large supply of your raffle tickets in your purse.