Friday Photo Flashback

I was never one who liked candid shots of me growing up.  However, as an adult, those shots often bring back a strong memory.  That’s the case today.

The above photo is one that my dad took of me coming out of Michigan National Bank.  This was my first bank account. 

I had a paper route and I used to collect all the money, give it to my folks, who’d write a check that I gave to the paper.  The tips were mine.

After someone broke into our home one night, my dad decided it was best to get me my own account.  I had my own checking account, so I could write the checks to the paper myself. 

The first thing I remember was that it was Michigan National Bank.  It was located near the Hoover 11 Shopping Center.  This made it easy to put the money in the bank and then go spend my tips on records, toys, or books

It’s funny to see me holding the checkbook here.  At the beginning, I kept such great records of that account.  I always put the debits and credits in the ledger.  At some point, I was only putting in the amount of the cost of the papers and keeping the rest of the money.  So, I stopped keeping track.  Dumb mistake …

I have to be about 10 or 11 here.  I say that because I remember that coat being one I had gotten from my grandma for Christmas. I would put me in 5th or 6th grade here.

I often think about how lucky I was to have a paper route.  I learned a lot of lessons from that “job.”. To me, it was a right of passage.  It was an easy job and it made me enough money to support my “music habit!!” It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was enough.

In case you are wondering, I was never like the paper boy in Better Of Dead who stalked John Cusack for his “two dollars.”