Galen Memories - learning about money

Part of growing up - perhaps all of it, really - is the process of figuring out how the world works.  I have a memory from a time when I didn’t understand how money worked, but I was aware that you used it to get things you wanted.  In this pre-internet, even pre-credit card world, if you wanted to buy something you either paid cash or wrote a check.  I’d seen Mom write checks for groceries and other purchases, but I didn’t understand the concept of a bank account that you put money in to support the check being written.  One day a friend from a few blocks away came by with something to sell.  I don’t remember what it was - I think he wanted five dollars for it.  I didn’t have five dollars.  But I did know where there was a blank check.  So I decided to do the grown up thing and pay for this objet du désir with a check.  I filled out the check and wrote my name - I suspect I was in first or second grade at the time - and my friend left with the check and I had my prize.  For perhaps 20 or 30 minutes, until the friend returned with his mother to ask about the validity of my payment.  The whole scheme crumbled, and I got a talk from Mom about the need to have money to pay for things and how I wasn't allowed to write checks.