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I was making a deposit at the teller window of my local bank.  As the teller proceeded to finish the transaction, she asked if I would like to apply for their credit card.  This question has been posed to me at least two or three times at my bank.  Everyone knows that it is their job to not only complete a transaction at the teller window, but they also have to attempt to make
a sale of another service provided by the bank.  I knew something about myself and my credit status that they did not know.  Not only was I certain that I no longer qualified for a credit card, but I also would not have wanted one if I was qualified. My reply to the tellers at the bank was that my wife and I are a "Cash Only Society".  I tell you, it feels so good.

I can remember that it was in or about the year 1980 when we began to use credit cards. We have always lived a simple lifestyle, but before credit cards came into our lives we lived with the lack of many things and during certain dire situations, we had no one to bail us out. Our family life was governed by cash for the first seven or eight years of our marriage, and if God did not provide for us in means other than the cash we earned, we simply went without. We did not call it such back then, but we were “A Cash Only Society”.

It's hard to imagine the young age at which young people begin to use credit cards nowadays, but Barb and I were around 30 years of age when we were first given a credit card from Bank of America.  The card was sent without our ever having to apply for it but as I recall, we felt honored to be qualified for a credit card.  We used it and started using credit as a tool for survival on many occasions.  Little did we realize at the time that we would be using cards for nearly 30 years.   When you add it all up, we have been a cash-only society                                                                                         for around 11 years.  There were about 8 years at the beginning of our marriage that we did not use credit cards, and we discontinued using them more than 3 years ago.  Without a doubt, the most telling of those years has been the last three.  It is much easier to live without something you never had before.  It is another matter to break away from something that you have grown used to and, in some cases, absolutely depended upon.  I tell you, there is a real sense of freedom when you are “A Cash Only Society.”

I do not deny that it is a rather difficult task to live a respectable and modern life without the use of credit.  One can sometimes feel deprived and occasionally face the reality of simply being denied in a credit-driven world.  However, I wish that I could share with you the absolute pleasure and thrill that I felt the first time I responded to the bank teller by saying, “Thank you, but we are A Cash Only Society”.

cj12022011
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