Stamps

When I was younger I dreaded my Granny asking me to go to the corner store. I would first make sure it was not food stamps she was sending me with but if it was I would always try and come up with an excuse any excuse to avoid using the dreaded "Stamps". Damn those food stamps marked all over the place with the phrase "Food Coupon" and highlighted in bright red, purple, and brown so others know you are poor and receiving welfare assistance. There I would be tightly holding the crumbled stamp in my hand so no one could see it and at the very end I would pull it out  and toss it to the store keeper. I use to wait to the store was cleared to make my purchase. Sometimes the store owner would bust me out and say, "Paying with food stamps?" and I would awkwardly hand over the crumbled bill. My worst fear was running into a classmate. I was faced with this fear one afternoon as I walked the aisles at the corner store I saw a classmate. There he was buying candy and soda and he said, "Hello". I thought he couldn't possibly be paying with stamps and he already noticed me so I had to wait for him to leave. I wandered around aimlessly already having the items I came for in hand. The store owner kept hassling me, "Are you ready?" My face would turn bright red, "No" I replied. I waited behind the end of the line once I saw him go up to the counter. When I saw him pull out the dreaded stamps I nearly laughed out loud and was relieved not to be the only one. In reality most of the kids at my school had public assistance and there was only one girl in the entire school who took her own lunch. We made fun of her oblivious that there was a reason she brought her own lunch and we all got free ones from the school. Once he left the store and I was in the clear I paid with my Food Stamps and and thought to myself, poor kid had to pay with Food Stamps and how embarrassed he must have felt. They now have a debit card so you don't have to deal with all the stigma that comes with the stamps but I still hear cashiers say, "EBT?", which is the electronic benefit transfer which is another term for food stamps. I don't understand the need to shout out the type of payment someone is using as long as they are paying for the the items. I am obviously hyper sensitive to this issue since I was forced to use the ugly colorful stamps that looked like some game board money. Damn you Food Stamps, damn you! I must say when I was a child the 1st of the month could never come around fast enough and our biggest worry was that someone might steal the check. I once chased my mother down the street for the check as she pulled up with her boyfriend at the time as the mail man was coming to take our check. My Granny shouted,  "Get her she has the check". If you can imagine 5 kids under the age of 12 (Including uncle Frankie who was around 11 at the time) chasing a grown woman in a car with an adult male driver leaving a motel.