Wow. This is a carbon copy of my experience. It was in New Jersey in about 1988, and the guy was probably in his early 40s. Yes, he was black. I’m boggling at the nearly identical dialogue. Although mine was infused with “I hear the words ‘case quarter,’ but that makes no sense. He must be saying something else.” So I said “Excuse me?” about 3 times until he said “A CASE QUARTER! A solid quarter!”
A girl I worked with opined that the phrase reflects the fact that 2 dimes and a nickel wrapped up “in a case” would be a quarter :dubious:
I went through a time when I got really frustrated with the kids, especially at fast-food places, who didn’t seem to have any concept of the numbers they were seeing when they made change. If the register didn’t tell them, they didn’t have a clue, and if you gave them something the least bit out of the ordinary they were totally confused. So I started giving them the odd change that was the difference from the quarter, with the dollars. Messed them up totally. The best time was the night I went to the drive-through at Wendy’s. The total was 4.89. I gave the guy 5.14.
“Ma’am, you gave me 14 cents.”
“Yes, I know.” And that was all I said.
And then, somewhere in the background I heard, softly, “Oh, she wants a quarter.”
I’m hoping the light that dawned stayed on.
I think some of it is the whole “the machine must be right” thing. I’ve had to explain to fellow cashiers that it really doesn’t matter what you put in as the amount tendered. If you get the right change to the customer, the machine doesn’t have any idea what numbers you entered. If, for example, you hit a wrong key and enter 20 cents instead of 20 dollars, the register will still be asking for money, still showing a balance owing, so just enter that balance, close the transaction, and go on. As long as the actual money is right, the numbers don’t matter.
Yes, February 15th 1971. The silver coins had been phased in starting three years earlier as they (5p, 10p, 50p) were direct replacements for existing units - the 5p and 10p were the same size, shape and value as the 1s and 2s coins, and the 50p was worth the same as a ten-shilling note.
Funny, yes, but then there are people who will cope easily with ounces, pounds, tons, pints, gallons, inches, feet, yards and miles, and yet shy away from a system where everything’s in tens.
Admit it, Annie, you just wanted to see how many smileys you could get away with
The first week or so after moving from Spain to Philly, I went down to the cafeteria with a coworker, Doris. I pick a main dish and head to the counter where you got your veggies. The lady behind the counter asks me whether I want something which I don’t quite understand but assume to be “okrah” (having read the name somewhere). There were several unfamiliar veggies in the trays, so I’m not sure which one is okrah. I say “sorry, not sure which one is that” and before I can ask her to point it for me she starts yelling “okrah! Okrah is okrah!” “well, yes, but I’ve never seen okrah before, so can you please point it for me?” “it’s okrah! Just. Okrah!” Doris piped in “she’s a foreigner, dear, there isn’t okrah where she comes from (Nava, it’s that one points)” “How can she not know okrah? And she ain’t nohow no foreigner, she speaks English!”
Would you believe this isn’t the case anymore? We’ve gotten our stupid cashiers so dependent on the machines that in some systems now, you have to enter what denomination of cash your customer gives you (often, the screen shows you some options with pretty pictures - $20 or 2 $10s or 1 $10 and 2 $5’s - and you pick one) and you have to give back the exact number of the exact bills and coins specified on the screen ($5, $1, 2 quarters, 1 nickel, 3 pennies.) At the end of the shift, the till prints out a report detailing how many of each thing should be in the drawer, not just a total.
From a management point of view, this serves three purposes - it makes a till lightening fast to count down, and pinpoints exactly where any error is without having to rub two brain cells together, it cuts down in cashier error while making change, and it makes it harder to steal from the store. The most common employee cash theft is done by taking money but not ringing up the item. You then later, at some slow moment, remove the extra cash from the till and pocket it. This newer system makes it harder to keep track of how to remove the correct amount - you need to remember not only that you didn’t ring up $3.58 four times, but to take out 12 singles, 8 quarters, 4 nickles and 24 pennies. If you take out a ten, 4 singles, a quarter, a nickel and 2 pennies, you’re going to get caught because you’ll have too many singles and not enough 10s in your drawer at the end of your shift, even though your total balances out.
“case” is a card players term. It refers to the fourth card of a specific denomination. i.e.: you’re playing blackjack and you see that there are three aces in play, you might say to the dealer, “give me the case ace”.
I’ve never heard it applied to money, but it may be used for quarters since there are four quarters in a dollar. Just a guess.
Nava - I don’t know if you were trying to write her accent, but in case you need to look it up or something it’s “okra”. And do yourself a favor and only eat it fried.
The Urban Dictionary says this about “case quarter”:
In the old days people used dollar coins. Some times they would cut them into 4 parts. (2 bits 4 bits). If someone wanted a dollar coin that was not in pieces, they would say “case dollar”.This got refreshed several years ago. When some one walks up to you and they say, “Yo, you gots a case quarter?” most of the time they will have 2 dimes and 1 nickle.
But, it doesn’t explain why “case” means “whole.”
But you’re in Madison so it’s nice to have a frame of reference to where I’m talking about.
By the way, I had to go back & forth to Dubuque a couple of times in the last month. That construction on the Beltline is starting to drive me nuts!:mad:
Had this happened to me, I would have gone out of my way to return to that store, purchase the exact same set of stuff, and wait in the same cashier’s line at every available opportunity.
Aw, poor pet, had to deal with it two whole times. Fortunately this round of construction is in the opposite direction of my daily commute and stops just shy of my exit, but I still get stuck in the backup of traffic on the way home every day. And whoever’s in charge of placing those barrels needs a good slapping.
