Coinstar
Or, Why the Poor Gamble…
by Mary Sojourner
“Pin your ear to the wisdom post; Pin your eye to the line; Never let the weeds get higher; Than the garden…” — Tom Waits, “Get Behind the Mule”
Four years ago, I was meeting the moving guy to bring my seven pieces of furniture from Twentynine Palms to my new one-room cabin in Yucca Valley, California. I’d been renting a 16’ x 10’ jackrabbit homestead. Sharing a kitchen and bath, one mid-May day of 111-degree heat and one day of 50 mph winds that ripped a window off proved me to be the Hippie American Princess I had always suspected I was.
I pulled into the cheapest gas station to fill up. The cheapest gas in the cheapest gas station was $4.15 a gallon. I shoved my credit card (SHOVED is the operative term) into the slot and watched the numbers launch. (more…)
