Impersonal
I make the weekly bank deposit for our church. Each week, that's me in the bank's drive-thru line, two kids in the backseat rolling down their windows and shamelessly dangling out the window in hopes of scoring a lollipop ("We're here, do you see us? Aren't we cute? Don't we deserve a lollipop?").
Only, the last couple of months there have been no lollipops. The bank ran out, and has made no effort to restock, despite my kids' disappointed faces. Then I noticed a few weeks ago that they had closed down two of the three drive-thru lanes. Thinking it strange, I mentioned it to the teller when I finally pulled up to the window after waiting 13 minutes in line (closing down two lanes has meant that the wait in the one remaining line can be absurdly long). The teller informed me that they were in the process of closing down the drive-thru for good, and that by June 8, there would be no more drive thrus at any of their banking locations.
My mouth dropped open.
He then went on to explain that technology has made it possible for people to bank completely online, and that hardly anyone comes through the drive-thru anymore (I glanced in my rear-view mirror at the 3 cars behind me in line, wondering how they would feel at being called "hardly anyone"). With the emergence of online and mobile banking, drive-thrus are becoming obsolete, blah, blah blah.
Obsolete? You mean that all the other mothers like me with hungry kids in the backseat are celebrating because now they will get to tote their cherubs into the bank with them and attempt to stand peacefully with them in the line, restrain them from loudly knocking over the retractable line dividers, conduct their business, and then emerge from the bank lollipop-less and then buckle everyone back into the car again? Surely you jest!
Somehow I kept it together and let him happily explain to me that I will be able to do all my banking with a debit card at the ATM, as long as I don't have too many checks at a time to deposit (great! What happens if I do have too many checks?). I failed to ask him what I should do with the loose change that sometimes appears in the offering plate at church; tape it to the checks and hope the slot accepts it?
Anyway, the point of my rant is this: pretty soon it will be possible to go an entire day with absolutely no human contact, and that to me is very, very sad. Lollipops aside, I like being able to wish someone a good day and offer a smile. It just won't be the same to look into the screen of the ATM camera and wish it a good day.
And I guarantee it won't have lollipops.
Only, the last couple of months there have been no lollipops. The bank ran out, and has made no effort to restock, despite my kids' disappointed faces. Then I noticed a few weeks ago that they had closed down two of the three drive-thru lanes. Thinking it strange, I mentioned it to the teller when I finally pulled up to the window after waiting 13 minutes in line (closing down two lanes has meant that the wait in the one remaining line can be absurdly long). The teller informed me that they were in the process of closing down the drive-thru for good, and that by June 8, there would be no more drive thrus at any of their banking locations.
My mouth dropped open.
He then went on to explain that technology has made it possible for people to bank completely online, and that hardly anyone comes through the drive-thru anymore (I glanced in my rear-view mirror at the 3 cars behind me in line, wondering how they would feel at being called "hardly anyone"). With the emergence of online and mobile banking, drive-thrus are becoming obsolete, blah, blah blah.
Obsolete? You mean that all the other mothers like me with hungry kids in the backseat are celebrating because now they will get to tote their cherubs into the bank with them and attempt to stand peacefully with them in the line, restrain them from loudly knocking over the retractable line dividers, conduct their business, and then emerge from the bank lollipop-less and then buckle everyone back into the car again? Surely you jest!
Somehow I kept it together and let him happily explain to me that I will be able to do all my banking with a debit card at the ATM, as long as I don't have too many checks at a time to deposit (great! What happens if I do have too many checks?). I failed to ask him what I should do with the loose change that sometimes appears in the offering plate at church; tape it to the checks and hope the slot accepts it?
Anyway, the point of my rant is this: pretty soon it will be possible to go an entire day with absolutely no human contact, and that to me is very, very sad. Lollipops aside, I like being able to wish someone a good day and offer a smile. It just won't be the same to look into the screen of the ATM camera and wish it a good day.
And I guarantee it won't have lollipops.
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