There Was A Farmer, Had A Dog...

I used to be a pawnbroker. I got to see the gamut of human emotion, all of it revolving around money and possessions. I dispensed as much advice as I did money. It was like being the progeny of a banker and a bartender.

I've been thinking about that job a lot lately. Mainly about the things I saw that made me sad. Dirty looking, umkempt 30 something slack-jawed woman would come in with another dirty looking umkempt 30 something woman and a dejected looking child in tow, carrying a video game console. (This was a surprisingly common caravan.) As it played out, the first woman was invariably the mother of the dejected looking child, and she was there pawning her kid's fucking toys, so she could go to bingo.

We did a brisk business in used video game consoles. I guess bingo was unfriendly to those moms. I wanted to cry for the kids.