A true story- February 3, 2010
I have lived in the country for over two years and still thinking that I am not in Los Angeles or Tucson anymore. Here is one recent experience to drive home reality. Yesterday, I decided to take a lunch break and drive a short distance from my Raytheon office. Newton, MS is about ten miles east of Forest, MS. Newton is a small town whose downtown is about four blocks wide that is surrounded with early 1900’s colonial style homes; beautiful homes with a few fix uppers. Buildings downtown are all brick built. In the middle of town is a small café operated by some senior citizens. Since I did not have time to go in for lunch, I tried the drive thru. I ordered a catfish plate (one of my favorite lunch item in MS). The total cost with some “sweet tea” was about $8.50. I drove up to the window; I provided my debit card to the lady at the window. She says, we do not accept any form of “cards”, only cash or check. I politely informed the lady that I had no cash, but I did have a check. She asked, was the check local? I say yes, Regions Bank. Regions Bank is located throughout MS and there is a branch one block from the cafe. It is like the Wells Fargo of the South. Again, I politely gave her the check. She says, I have to get my manager to approve it. I say, WHAT! My check is from a branch in Brandon, MS (about 35 miles west of Raytheon). She says that the check was out of town (I have heard of out of country or state; but out of town; wild!). She returns to the window about a minute later. I cannot find my manager; “she must be in the bathroom”. I had to hold my tongue. Again I say, WHAT. Finally her manager comes to the window. I say, why don’t you accept my local check. She says, Brandon is not local. I am streaming HOT. It’s the next local big town; what do you mean?. I am wasting my time during business with you. But I wanted that catfish plate; so I decided to park my SUV and walk over to the bank ATM for $20.00. Guess what, the bank did not have an ATM machine. I had to spend ten minutes in line to get money from the teller. The teller says, do you have an account here?. I said yes; here is my ATM credit/debit card. After looking at me and looking at my account she say, do you have ID? Again, I am getting really mad at the bank and the cafe. I had to give her two forms of ID. Finally I got my $20.00. Now I have that catfish on my mind; it better be worst it. I walk back to the cafe; got in my SUV and drove up to the window behind a car that had a disability tag. I am waiting for about three minutes wondering why this car had not moved from the drive-thru window yet. The lady comes out of the café with bag with my lunch and say, you much really want this catfish plate. I said, yes and I have to get back to work. Before I say goodbye, I asked her, why the car ahead of me never moved? She said they had a difficult time getting her order; she was deaf and unable to speak normal language. Also, I said to the lady; you guys have put a new meaning to "Cash Is King".

Winnfort! Welcome to the MS country life.